Return to Me
by mystica88
Summary: Sequel to The Megalomaniac Handbook. Picks up right where the last left off. They escaped once, but now they must return and take the Master out before it's too late.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Not my characters, just my story.

A/N: Alright, thanks to everyone who has shown an interest in the previous story, The Megalomaniac Handbook, and have returned for a second helping. This one I am sure will be longer and might not have as steady updates, but I hope that you will bear with me and read and review for this one as well.

Now, without further ado…

**Return to Me**

**Chapter 1**

Rose and Martha helped the Doctor make it to his room where he collapsed on his bed. Both the girls looked worried as Martha asked, "You going to be alright?"

Closing his eyes and leaning back, the Doctor simply nodded. Rose and Martha exchanged a glance before Martha turned and left. Rose stayed for a moment before coming forward and sitting on the edge of his bed.

Opening his eyes, he smiled at her. "Rose, you really are wonderful. I still can't believe that you're here."  
Rose smiled back. "Course I am. I couldn't leave you to that. I had to find a way across."

The Doctor frowned for a moment and then sighed, "I should have tried harder in the first place. If you were able to find your own way across, I should have found it for you sooner."

Rose shook her head and moved close enough to place her hand on his face. "No, everything had to be as it was."

The Doctor looked at her and forced himself to sit up some before taking her hand and holding it in his. "Rose, I really want to hear all about what has happened in your life and how you were able to cross into this universe again, but what I need to know first, how much do you remember from that room? Do you know what happened?"

Rose's eyes became distant as she tried to picture everything that had happened. "I remember screaming at Ka'ras as I thought he was going to kill you and then I felt something pull me, from inside. It was like a gentle tug and I felt warm and safe and… singing…" she said in a very far away voice before trailing off. "And then I don't remember anything until I was standing there with all of them asleep around me," she said, back in the present as she looked questioningly at the Doctor.

He looked back at her as he tried to decide how much he should tell her. He still didn't understand it himself. Somehow, Rose still carried the Time Vortex in her. He was sure that he had removed it all from her and put it back in the TARDIS. His ninth life had ended in doing so. If his own body was unable to handle the power for the short time that he held it, how could Rose possibly still be alive after carrying it in her, even dormant, for over three years?

He took a deep breath and asked, "Rose, I know I've asked before, but what do you remember after you looked into the TARDIS at the game station?"

Rose looked at him, wondering what he was getting at. "I… I remember a light and a warm… safety…singing" she drifted off as she began to put it all together.

"Rose, you are still carrying the power from the Time Vortex in you. That's what happened back in the room."

"But… but I thought you took it from me? I thought that it was going to kill me?" she said starting to stand in a slight panic.

The Doctor grabbed her hand and pulled her gently back to the bed. "Rose, calm down. You're fine, as far as I can figure. I did take most of it from you, enough to keep it from killing you. But apparently I didn't get it all. What was left has been…" he searched for the words that wouldn't make her upset again. "It has, remade you. It has been changing your mind just enough to allow it to be able to work through you without destroying you."

"You mean that it's messing around with my brain!" she cried.

He winced; he obviously wasn't doing a very good job of this. "Yes, but not in any way that you can perceive. You're still who you are, nothing has been changed about that. It's just like with a computer that receives an upgrade in memory. It's able to store more data and work faster, but it still keeps what was there to begin with."

Rose stared at him for a moment, "So you're saying that I have the Time Vortex, runnin' through my head, but I'm still the same person?" she said unbelieving.

"Essentially yes. True, you have a power that I can't even begin to fathom, but it's still mostly dormant. It's really like you have a split personality. When the power is active, it's the Bad Wolf. Back there when you put those men to sleep, the Bad Wolf said that it had been forced to act too early; that it hadn't been able to work with you enough to truly be able to support it. I have a feeling that it may be a very long time before that day comes. And until it does, you're still just Rose Tyler, the most fantastic girl that I have ever met and the one that has chosen to spend the rest of her life with me," he said with a soft smile as he reached out and placed a hand on her face, cupping it gently in his palm.

Rose didn't know what to think. She just found out that she had an almost limitless power within her that seemed to have a mind of its own that was rewriting her brain. On top of that, there was no telling when it might resurface again and she had no control over it.

But, even as frightening as all this information was, none of it seemed to really matter right now. Here she was, reunited with her Doctor and he was telling her how much he cared for her. He had even said what she had longed to hear from him on that beach two years ago, that he loved her.

Shoving her fear and panic aside, she allowed herself to smile at him, finally taking in the fact that he was really here, in front of her; that this wasn't just another dream. Sighing, she closed her eyes and leaned her face into his touch as she brought her hands up to hold his. She pulled his hand away from her face enough that she could kiss it gently. As she opened her eyes again, she laid her hand on his still bare chest once again while leaning down to kiss his lips.

Tentatively he responded and they shared their first true kiss with both of them as themselves, no alien influences, nothing hindering the moment, just the two of them, gently showing each other how much they cared and loved.

As their lips parted, Rose slid her hand up his chest casually only to quickly pull away as she watched him wince. The moment was instantly shattered.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she said as she began to mentally berate herself for forgetting that he must still be in a lot of pain after what he had just gone through.

"Rose, don't," he said softly as he caught her hand once again. "It's alright, really. It's not your fault."

She sighed as she sat on the bed once again. For the first time since they had been reunited, she took a long hard look at him. She had seen the pain and the damage inflicted upon him before, but now she was allowing herself to truly take it in. Nearly overcome with the sight, an unbidden tear spilled down her face and splashed upon his hand.

"I'm so sorry. I should have been there sooner. I wasn't there for you," she began to sputter.

"Rose, you were. You were there as fast as you were able. It's like you said, everything had to be as it was. You could not have been there any sooner than you were."

She shook her head, as she wiped another tear from her eye, "I know. But it just seems… If I had just…just tried harder… thought quicker… that maybe you might not have had to gone through all of that."

They both remained silent for a while as Rose attempted to regain control. But she was still having difficulty coming to grips with one other aspect. In a trembling voice she asked, "It was my fault though, wasn't it?"

He looked hard at her. How could he make her understand that even though it was to bring her there that he had suffered, he didn't even in the least blame her? Finally he said, "The Master did want you, but he would have done this to me with or without the objective to capture you. Our rivalry goes back hundreds of years and his hatred of me is his driving force to keep on living long after he should have died. Nothing would give him more pleasure than to watch me suffer and eventually die at his hands."

Rose sniffed as she listened, she knew he was right, but could not shake off at least a piece of guilt. "But it was because of me, of the power that I have, that he went after you. If it hadn't been for me, he might not even have known you were still alive. It was me that he wanted and he went through you to find me," she said as tears of guilt continued to flow.

"Rose, I don't know how I can make you understand that I don't blame you. That even though it was you he wanted, none of this was your fault. When it comes down to it, it's my fault that you even have the power that he seeks. You cannot blame yourself for even a small part in what happened; just that you were there when I needed you the most and it was you who saved me."

Rose sat silently for a moment, taking in his words. Mentally, she knew he was right. She couldn't blame herself for any of it. But when it came down to it, her heart wouldn't let it go.

Still, there was nothing that she could change. Looking at him again, with a tentative smile she said, "You're right, but let's not dwell. You obviously need some rest yet and something for your wrists and ankles it looks like," she said glancing at the hand she had just laid on his chest and the raw wound that wrapped around his wrist.

Feeling every bit of exhaustion that he had been fighting off during this talk he sighed and said, "Yes. Ask Jack for the Dermal Regenerator please. I'll probably be asleep when you get back, just wake me up and I'll show you how to use it."

Rose nodded as she stood. Pausing, she leaned down and kissed him lightly on the forehead before leaving to find Jack.

* * *

She found him still in the control room. Before she could say anything to him, he spotted her and asked, "How is he?" 

Rose sighed, "Exhausted, in pain, but recovering I think. He asked me to bring him a dermal regenerator. He said you'd know where it was."

Jack nodded as he led Rose down another corridor to the medical bay. "Any idea what he thinks we should do?" he asked as they walked.

Rose shook her head as she said, "No. We didn't talk much about what just happened. But I'm sure that we're going to have to go after the Master eventually before he comes for us again."

Jack nodded as he continued to lead Rose down the twists and turns of the TARDIS halls. They were silent for a while until they reached the med bay. Jack grabbed the small hand held device that Rose was asked to get and handed it to her. "Rose, what happened? How did you get here?" he asked.

Rose smiled, "I wondered how long it would be before your curiosity took over."

"Seriously Rose, how'd you manage it?"

"Well, apparently I used a hole in time and space that you are already aware of," she said, just ever so slightly accusingly. When she discovered that Jack had been aware of the Rift, she wondered why he had never mentioned it to the Doctor.

Jack though for a second, "the rift!?" he said surprised.

Rose nodded. "All I had to do was get close enough to it with the device that my dad and Mickey came up with to cross the universes before, and it brought me right back here."

"But... Rose, I swear, there had never been any indication that the rift extended into another universe. It was obviously through time and space, but I didn't realize that it was dimensional as well," he tried to explain.

"It's alright Jack. It really doesn't matter," she assured him. "But you really should check in with your team there. I think I got them rather worried about you," she said as she began to head back the way they had come.

"You met them?" he asked.

"Yup, both in this universe and the other. Well, I met most of them in both. The other universe has someone named Suzie running the unit and Gwen isn't there."

"Suzie!" he exclaimed.

"I assume that you knew her as well?"

"You could say that. At least I thought I had…"

Rose eyed him before saying, "Didn't get along too well then?"

He shook his head, "that's a bit of an understatement. But really, it doesn't matter. Whoever is in charge of Torchwood Cardiff in the other universe, is none of my concern. At least Gwen is still in charge here, right?"

"Yup. Doing a good job of it too."

"Good, I knew she would."

By then they had reached the control room once again and Jack chose to stay there and check over some things with the TARDIS. "Let me know how he's doing," Jack said.

Rose nodded as she turned and walked back to the Doctor's room. As she went, she began to wonder what they were going to do about the Master. She knew that if they left him for too long, he'd just pop up again and take them off guard. For once, they were going to have to take the offence and take care of him before he was able to develop a plan against them. But with the Doctor as weak as he was, it might be a while before they were going to be able to do anything.

Rose reached the door and slowly opened it. She thought she heard the Doctor mumbling something as she began to push it open. "Doctor?" she called in as she poked her head around the door.

He wasn't lying in his bed as she had expected. A quick glance about the room revealed him to be lying on the floor beside the bed. He had changed into what appeared to be the same pajamas that she and her mom had dressed him in after he had regenerated. He was thrashing a bit and seemed to be moaning in pain as he fought against an unseen enemy.

"Doctor!" Rose called as she rushed to him and dropped to the floor at his side. She took a hold of his shoulders and shook him as she called once again to him, "Doctor! Wake up!" But there was no response. He seemed to still be locked in whatever dream, or as it would seem, nightmare, that he was experiencing.

Rose looked at him anxiously as she continued to try and wake him, but was getting nowhere. Finally she gave up and ran to the still open door. Thrusting her head into the hallway, she called, "Jack! Come quick!" and then turned back and returned to the Doctor's side, still trying to wake him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Jack! Come quick!" Rose called, and then turned back and returned to the Doctor's side, still trying to wake him.

Just seconds later, Jack rushed in. "What is it?" he demanded.

Rose glanced at Jack and then back at the Doctor. "I think he collapsed and now I can't wake him," she said.

Jack walked over and bent down, lifting the Doctor off of the floor and placing him once again on the bed. The movement still had no effect on bringing him around.

"What is it Jack?" Rose asked as she rounded to the other side of the bed.

Rose watched Jack's face as he tried to wake the Doctor himself. She became more and more alarmed as Jack seemed to become more agitated. Finally he exclaimed, "damn it! I knew this would happen, I just didn't think he could act so fast!"

"What? What is it?" Rose demanded.

"The Master! He had those psycho recordings. He was able to use them once to make a mind control device. It seems that he's using it to get to him once again."

"But we have that device. He left it behind!" Rose said as she turned once again to the Doctor. He was mumbling something now. She couldn't make it all out but she was sure that he said, "No, you can't have her."

"Doctor," she said more gently, as she cupped his face in her hands. As she did so, it was as if she gained a double sight. She was at once looking down on him and she was looking through his eyes and seeing what he was seeing.

Ka'ras was standing over him again, but he was speaking this time. "Bring her to me and I'll let you go," he was saying. Roes could feel as the Doctor shook his head. "Doctor, you know what I am capable of and you still have several more lives left that I can draw this out through. Is she really that important to you?"

"Yes," she felt him answer.

"So be it," Ka'ras said as he pulled out a serrated knife and drew it across the Doctor's chest. Rose was able to both hear the Doctor where he laid in his bed and feel him as she lay within his thoughts moan as the blade bit into his flesh.

Quickly letting go, Rose jumped back and stared down at the Doctor, not sure exactly what had just happened. She knew that he was able to make physic connections with others, but it felt as if this was something she had initiated.

"What?" Jack asked as he saw her face.

She shook her head as she went back to the bed and lifted the Doctor's shirt up. Sure enough, where she had seen Ka'ras cut him, a wicked bloody gash ran across his chest.

"What the hell?" Jack exclaimed.

"I saw it," Rose said. "I could see what he's seeing. It's Ka'ras, he wants the Doctor to give me to him and he won't stop until he gets me," Rose exclaimed.

Jack shook his head, "but it's all in his head, how did he get that cut?"

"He must really believe that he is being cut," Rose said. "I've heard of people who dream that they are hurt and wake up with a pain. His mind must be telling his body that he has been cut, and so it responds as if it has been."

Rose shook her head, trying to think of what she could do. If he was so convinced that what he was going through was real, then the only thing to do was to convince him it wasn't.

Taking a hold of his face again, she hoped that she could form another connection with him. Instantly, she was looking through his eyes again. Ka'ras was still hovering over him, taunting him and demanding that she be handed over.

"Doctor," she called to him. This time she got a slight response from him as his eyes flickered for a second. Likewise, from where she looked through his eyes, he blinked. She began to become hopeful.

"Doctor this isn't real. He's got you some type of dream." She said to him.

He shook his head, not in a negative, but as if he couldn't quite understand what she was saying. "Doctor, it's not real. None of it is real. You're still on the TARDIS in your bed." She tried again.

She watched as his eyes began to flicker as she heard him mumble, "Not real."

"That's right," she encouraged.

"Of course it is," she heard Ka'ras respond. "This is as real as it gets as he drew the blade across the Doctor's chest again.

But this time, it left to mark. "This isn't real," the Doctor said slightly stronger.

Ka'ras glared at him. "I've trapped you within your own mind before, I can do it again," he said.

"No Master. This time this isn't a world that you have created, it is mine. And I am saying, This… Isn't… Real," and with that Rose's connection was broken as his eyes flew open. He was awake once again.

"Doctor!" both Rose and Jack exclaimed as he sat bolt up in bed, gasping. His hands flew to his head as he slammed his eyes shut once again and looked as if he were struck with a major headache.

"Are you alright?" Rose demanded as she moved to his side once again.

He nodded as he continued to hold his head in his hand, muttering to himself. Rose couldn't quite make out the words, but she was sure that he was still telling himself that it wasn't real.

She began to relax and soften as she sat on the bed beside him, pulling him into her arms. "It's alright, you're free now," she said as she felt the tension that he still held.

Jack watched as Rose held the Doctor. He had never seen the Time Lord so completely at another's mercy. He had given himself wholly over to Rose to support and hold him. Jack had never thought it even possibly for the man to so completely release his hold on a situation and relinquish it to another.

After a few moments of silence, the Doctor seemed to steady himself once again and sat up, pulling himself out of Rose's arms, and looked at her questioningly.

"How did you know?" he asked. "How did you know what I was seeing?"

Rose shrugged. "I thought that you might have shown me. I was trying to wake you and suddenly it was as if I was looking through your eyes," she explained.

The Doctor shook his head. "I had nothing to do with it. It must have been you."

"But I can't do anything like that," Rose said.

"You can't, but Bad Wolf can."

She stared at him for a moment before saying, "I thought you said that we wouldn't be seeing Bad Wolf again for a long time."

"Apparently, I was wrong. It's the only thing that could explain it."

They sat in silence for a while longer before Jack cleared his throat to get their attention.

"I'm not going to pretend to understand what you two are talking about, but I would like to know what just happened here."

The Doctor sighed as his brow furrowed a bit more as if in concentration. "It was the Master. He's taken Ka'ras's body and now he's using the same device he used to contact Rose to trap me inside my mind."

"Damn!" Jack swore as he walked away a few paces in frustration. After a second he turned back and asked, "and this thing with Rose, what's that?"

The Doctor and Rose exchanged a look before the Doctor answered. "Apparently I wasn't as complete as I thought I was with removing the time vortex from her."

Jack looked sharply at Rose in unbelief. She looked back, feeling as if she was missing something significant in the way that he looked at her.

After a second Jack looked back at the Doctor, "You're kidding, right? Because you know that this is not something to kid me with."

The Doctor sighed, "No I'm not. But she doesn't have control over it yet and it is still a danger to her," he told Jack.

"But she has it? It is possible, right?"

"Wait a second!" Rose interrupted. "I'm right here! Could you at least clue me in to whatever you're talking about?

Jack looked at the Doctor accusingly. "She doesn't know?"

"Jack!" Rose cried, causing him to look at her.

"Sorry Rose. I thought that you would know."

"No. She doesn't remember any of it. But even if she did, there's not much she could do right now." The Doctor said rather angrily.

"Stop it! Stop talking about me as if I can't hear you. One of you had better tell me what you are talking about!"

"Rose, didn't you wonder why I didn't die when the Master slit my throat?" Jack asked.

"Yes, I have been wondering why you can't die ever since your friend, Gwen, told me about it. But I have had other things on my mind beyond that."

"So you know then?"

"Yes."

"Well that started at the same time that you and the Doctor left me on the game station."

Rose thought a moment before she suddenly grasped what the implication was. She gasped as she said, "You mean, it was me that kept you from dying?"

She looked from Jack to the Doctor and back to Jack again and ended with a pleading look back at her Doctor. "I'm afraid so Rose. But it wasn't you, it was Bad Wolf."

Rose backed up a step, as she tried to process what they were telling her.

"I have been searching for you and the Doctor ever since. Hoping that you would have a way to put me right again. But when the Doctor finally found me, he couldn't do anything for me since it was you who had done it in the first place. And we weren't sure that I would ever have the opportunity to reverse it since you were trapped in the other universe and you no longer had those powers."

"But I'm here now, and apparently still have Bad Wolf with me."

"But you don't know how to use it yet," the Doctor said. "Jack and I can't ask you to even try to use them until we are sure that it won't burn your mind and that you have complete control over them."

Rose subconsciously bit her lower lip as she thought about what both had told her. She was, at least in part, the reason that Jack was the way he was. On first thought, never being able to die seemed like a great thing, but knowing he can't die must make life all the less exciting and unimportant. She had cursed him with immortality and had no idea how to reverse it.

Jack, reading her thought on her face, said, "Rose, I don't blame you. You couldn't have known what it was you were doing and neither you nor the Doctor had any idea of what had happened until he found me again."

Rose nodded, only it was more to appease him than to actually accept his words. As she prepared herself to shove the matter aside for right now, she looked back at the Doctor. It didn't take more than that look to shove her self doubt and loathing aside as she saw him beginning to tip over once again as his eyes rolled back in his head.

"Doctor!" she cried as she took hold of his shoulders, preventing him from falling over and giving him a firm shake at the same time.

"Wha?…" he gasped as his eyes snapped back open and he steadied himself.

"You were slipping out again," Jack said as Rose looked him over with concern.

"Nothing big, just tired," he mumbled as he tried to push Rose aside and try to stand. As he did so, he nearly fell to the bed once again as his legs were unwilling to support him.

"You need to rest," Rose protested.

"And I will as soon as we take care of the Master," the Doctor argued.

"You're in no condition to go back and take him on Doctor," Jack stated.

"And I won't be given the opportunity to get in better condition until he is taken out. So we'll just have to make do," the Doctor said as he tried to rise once again, this time slower and more carefully.

"What do you mean?" Rose asked.

"He's still calling me, still trying to trap me in my mind again. And I can't resist him forever. We have to get him now." He made it to a stand but as he began to sway slightly, Rose was there, helping to support him.

"You can't be serious," Jack said.

"Well I am. One Hundred percent."

"Doctor, let Jack, Martha and me take care of this," Rose said. "The three of us should be able to take care of him. You can't possibly expect to be able to stand against him like this."

The Doctor looked hard at Rose before saying, "You and Martha are not going anywhere near him. I'm taking you both back to Earth and then Jack and I will return to the asteroid to take care of the Master ourselves."

"Oh no you don't!" Rose said as she let go of him and didn't feel the least bit sorry when he practically collapsed on the bed once again. "You are not doing that to me a third time. You know how well I take being left behind and I am not about to be left on Earth once again while you face your toughest enemy yet when you need my help the most!"

"Rose, it's too dangerous," he protested. "He wants you. That's the whole reason that he's calling me. He wouldn't be doing so already if he hadn't come up with another way to trap you."

"And me?" Martha said quietly from the doorway. Everyone turned and looked at her as she said, "why take me home?"

The Doctor sighed before saying, "Martha, you are in the most danger of all. The Master wants Rose alive, Jack can't die, and he wants nothing better to keep me alive as long as possible to draw out my suffering. You, you are expendable to him and so he will try to use your life, or death, to manipulate us."

Martha looked to the floor as the Doctor talked. "The show in the control room should have been enough to convince you of that. He couldn't have me kill Rose because he wants her and he thought Jack was already dead. If he gets another controller working again, he'll do it all over again."

Jack walked over to Martha as a tear began to roll down her face as she nodded.

"You really are going to dump us off on Earth, aren't you?" Rose said.

The Doctor looked at her. He knew that she hated him for it, but he could not risk her life again, not after finally getting her back. He nodded to her. "I sorry, Rose. But you can't come."

"You've said that before, you know," she said with a wistful smile. "I asked if I would ever see you again and you said that I can't. But here I am, seeing your face again," she said as she leaned in to him.

"I am glad I was wrong about that, but I'm not willing to risk your life," he said, leaning in to her as well.

Rose's lips were almost touching his when she said, "Then I guess that this will be goodbye for a while." She closed the small gap that separated them and locked her lips onto his. It was a soft, gentle kiss. But as they separated, the Doctor felt a strange light headedness come over him as he breathed in her exhale.

"I'm sorry," he heard her whisper as the room spun for a second just before he was overtaken by a quiet, restful oblivion.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 

How long he remained in that peaceful state, he had no idea. For the first time in his life, time seemed to have no meaning. The spin of the universe around him came to a halt as he drifted through refreshing nothingness. No dreams, thoughts, fears, or other emotions penetrated his sleep. He just… was.

That is, until he heard her calling him…

"Doctor," it was the first sound that came to him since being sent into his sleep. It was Rose who was calling him.

"Doctor…" she called again. "Help me,"

He had been called from sleep too early once by those words and he was once again. "Rose!" he called as immediately he sat bolt right up in a strange bed, searching for whatever danger might surround him.

But unlike the last time, there was nothing there. No homicidal Christmas tree, no screams of terror, no trusty sonic screwdriver conveniently placed in his hand; just a quite, empty room.

Well… not quite empty…

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Doctor," a soft familiar voice said from somewhere to his right.

Turning, he saw his Sarah Jane, sitting in a chair pushed up against the wall beside his bed, open book lying in her lap.

"Sarah?" he asked, confused as to how and why she was there.

She smiled as she nodded. "Welcome to my home. Maybe now that you've been here you could find it again, hmm?"

Still feeling rather fuzzy, he shook his head to try and clear it. "What? Your house? Why am I here? How'd I get here? Where's Rose?"

Sarah frowned for a second as she tried to think of where to begin to answer his questions. But before she could, someone else entered the conversation.

"She's left," Martha said as she entered the room.

"Left? What do you mean?" he demanded.

"She did exactly to you what you have done to her twice before. She's left you behind while she takes care of the danger," Martha explained.

"She what!?" he exclaimed as he threw his covers off and prepared to get out of bed.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Doctor," Martha said.

"Why…" but it was then for the first time that he noticed that he wasn't in just a normal bedroom, but one that appeared to be more of a hospice. There were monitors and an IV attached to him.

"What's all this then?" he demanded.

"You've been out for a while and Rose said that you probably wouldn't wake for some time yet. We needed to keep you alive as your body rested. Not to mention treat all the injuries that you acquired over the last month." Martha explained.

"Out for a while? How long?"

"Nearly four days now," Sarah said.

"Four days! I've been asleep for four days! What the hell happened?!"

"Rose," Martha said simply as her medical training kicked in and she moved to take the Doctor's vitals.

He firmly, but gently, shoved her away as he began to pull the wires from himself. "Rose? You mean she sent me into a sleep? She used her untrained, unfocused powers to essentially send me into a coma while she runs off to take on my arch enemy?!"

"Basically," Sarah said with a shrug.

"Where's Jack then?" he said as he pull the IV from his arm with a slight wince and stood up.

He swayed for a second with the sudden head rush but quickly overcame it and began walking to the doorway.

"He's with her, along with K-9," Sarah said.

Martha reached out and took a hold of his arm, turning him to face her.

"Doctor, you know that you couldn't have taken the Master on the way you were, even if you were unwilling to admit it. What Rose has done was the only thing there was to do."

The Doctor glared at Martha for a moment before saying, "I see she left you behind as well. What happened? You try to contradict her too?"

Martha shook her head. "No, I am the only person with medical training who wouldn't want to dissect you as soon as you were in my charge. I had to stay behind to take care of you."

The Doctor sighed as he visibly tried to calm himself. "Thank you Martha. But I still can't believe that you would have gone along with this."

"It was the only thing that made any sense," Sarah defended.

"At least this way I would be doing something rather than just being dumped off and probably never come for again," Martha argued.

"What?" the Doctor asked, rather confused as to this new accusation.

Martha let go of his arm and stormed a few paces before turning back. "I've been talking a lot with Sarah over the last few days and I have come to see what you do to people you don't want around anymore. Just drop them off at home, or as near to their home as you get, and leave them there, wondering if your alive or dead. When really you just forgot about them."

"Martha…" Sarah tried to interrupt, but Martha road over her.

"So now you have your precious Rose back and your big plan is to leave her and me on Earth? Right, you probably were just saying that for me. No doubt you were going to drop me off first and then Rose. But really, you would have just unloaded me and taken off with her."

"Martha!" Sarah exclaimed.

The Doctor stared at his companion, hurt that she would even think that of him. "Martha, I would never do that to you. And if you don't realize that now, I'm not sure if you ever will," he said sadly as he turned from her and continued on his way to the door.

Sarah stood in his path and looked at him. He looked back at her sadly saying, "I'm sorry Sarah," as he gently pushed her aside so that he could finally leave the room.

Sarah let herself be moved, but as his foot passed through the doorway she asked, "So what now Doctor? Where are you going?"

He paused and, without turning around, he said. "To save Rose. Something happened to her and I have to save her."

"So now you understand how it feels… How it feels every time you leave one of us behind on a dangerous mission. Now you know why it is that Rose fought so hard to return to you, even though it might have meant her death," Sarah said.

The Doctor sighed again as he said, "Yes, I have learned my lesson, but at what cost I wonder?" And he left the two women staring after him.

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"How do you expect to get there? You don't have your TARDIS and as far as I know, there isn't a spare lying around," Sarah asked as she followed the now dressed Doctor out her door.

"I'm working on it. But first, I have to find Grace."

"Who?" Martha asked.

"A doctor who was with me the last time that I faced the Master," he explained.

"You mean when you thought you had defeated him?" Sarah asked.

"That's the time."

"Grace who?" Martha asked.

"Holloway."

Martha paused as she said, "You're kidding, right?"

The Doctor turned around and looked at her. "No. Why? Do you know her?"

Martha let out a slight laugh before saying, "Never met her personally, but I've had to read about a dozen of her text books. She's the leading expert on cardiology. Not bad for an American actually"

"Really?" the Doctor said with a smile as he turned and began walking again. "Well she shouldn't be too hard to track down then. Also should find Chang Lee. But he might be a bit harder to find."

It was Sarah's turn to laugh. He looked over his shoulder and asked, "What?"

"Doctor… seriously? Chang Lee?" Sarah laughed.

"Heard of him too?" he asked.

"He's only the biggest name in philanthropy in New York."

"No! Chang? The same Chang who nearly destroyed the world for two bags of gold Chang? Amazing!"

"Why do you need to find these two, Doctor?" Martha asked.

"Well, they were both in contact with the Master. I may be able to scan them and isolate the patterns and DNA that the Master left on them nearly twelve years ago. If I am actually able to pull of a complete pattern, I should be able to use that information to somehow stop him from being able to take over bodies. If he doesn't have a body, he can't do anything."

"Really?" the girls said in unison.

"At least I hope so."

"And getting out there?" Martha prompted.

"Well, that's the easy part. I'll just take the TARDIS."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 

"Hold on a second, Doctor," Martha said as she hurried to catch up with the fast walking Doctor. "What do you mean, 'take the TARDIS'? We told you, Jack and Rose took it to face the Master."

The Doctor smiled. "They took that one, yes. But I know where, or more specifically, when, another will be."

Sarah had caught up now and was listening intently. "You mean you plan on doing what Rose did to get to you? Find another version of yourself and use his TARDIS?"

"What, just because I didn't originally come up with it makes it a bad plan? It obviously worked once."

"Yes, but wasn't that like breaking tons of rules to do it once? Wouldn't it be even worse to do it again?" Martha asked.

The Doctor shrugged. "It's not exactly to the book, but as long as I don't meet up with this version of me, the possible time effects are minimal at worst."

"So which version are you planning on seeing then?" Sarah asked.

"The one just before me, Nine."

"When?"

The Doctor skued up his face as he thought, "Oh, I'd say, 1869 sounds like a good year."

"1869?!" both girls exclaimed.

"How do you expect to go back in time to get your TARDIS if you don't have it to travel through time with?" Martha asked.

Again, the Doctor smiled, "All in good time girls, all in good time. You know me, I always have a trick or two up my sleeve."

Sarah leaned in and whispered to Martha, "Which means he still has no idea but he's sure he'll come up with something in time."

Martha smiled. It was sometimes easy to forget that Sarah had also traveled with the Doctor for a considerable time. Longer than she or Rose had for that matter. The older woman had a lot of insight as to how the Doctor operated. Of course, Martha could have made that same observation after her first trip with him. Actually, she could have made that observation after she first met him before she had actually began traveling with him. He certainly was good at getting himself into trouble, but he was also brilliant when it came to getting himself out. And when it was one of his friends in trouble, he would pull out all the stops and never cease trying until he had succeeded in saving them.

Now, the woman that he loves, and one of his closest friends were in trouble, fighting against what sounded like one of his oldest and most vile enemies. Martha wouldn't have been surprised if the Doctor found a way to bend Time and Space to his will just to see them safe.

"Alright Doctor, go ahead and be mysterious," Martha heard Sarah saying. "But do you mind telling us where we are heading to now?"

"To the train station. Sounds like the best way to make it to Cardiff without the TARDIS."

"Cardiff, why there?" Martha asked.

"To get my TARDIS." And that was all he would say on the matter.

"What about finding those two you mentioned?" Sarah asked.

"W'hell, if they're as big and important as you say, then it shouldn't be too hard to look them up online somewhere." He said.

"That means we need to find a computer," Sarah pointed out.

"Right. Nearest café would be…?"

"Down the street and to the left," Martha supplied.

The Doctor smiled at her. "I've had you out all over the universe for the past two years and you still remember where all the coffee shops in London are."

"Medical student… coffee it the most important food group to us," she said with a shrug.

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"There she is!" the Doctor exclaimed as Sarah scrolled through the lists of Grace Holloway's. "Perfect! She's in Cardiff! She's actually in Cardiff! Amazing!"

"I don't believe it," Martha said. "My role model has been living practically next door to me all these years and I never even knew it. And now… when we need her, she's right where we are heading."

"Things just seem to work that way for the Doctor," Sarah muttered.

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The Doctor glared at phone as if the receptionist on the other end could actually see him as she told him again for the fourth time, "I'm sorry, but if you don't have an appointment, Mr. Lee can not speak to you. No exceptions. He is a very busy man with many people to meet with."

"And I'm telling you, if you just tell him that the Doctor is on the line, he will make time for me, I promise."

The receptionist was nearly ready to hang up the phone when the Doctor could hear a voice on her end saying, "What's up Sally?"

"Some man who only calls himself the Doctor wants to talk to you," she told the voice. "I have been trying to explain that he needs to make an appointment but he won't listen."

"The Doctor! Put the call through at once to my office Sally!" the voice said excitedly.

"Yes sir," the Doctor heard her mutter with the sound of a door closing. "I'll put you through at once sir," she said into the line.

"That's better," the Doctor said as his line switched over. A second later the other line was picked up.

"Doctor? Is it really you?" an excited familiar voice asked.

"Chang! It's good to hear from you again. I hear you have made quite a name for yourself."

"Well that's mostly due to you, Doctor. You're the one who told me to take a vacation. I went to New York and found a business opportunity and it just grew from there."

"Glad you listened," the Doctor answered.

"So Doctor," Chang began. "Why the sudden phone call? I don't hear from you for about nine years and suddenly out of the blue you're calling me up on the phone."

"Oh, same old same old. Sight seeing, rescuing those in trouble, checking in on old friends, saving the universe. You know…"

"I see," Chang said as he switched to a serious tone. "Only I don't. Why call me if you're in trouble again?"

"Chang, a good friend of mine is in very serious trouble and I need your help to get her," he answered very seriously.

"What could I possible help with? I nearly got you killed and blew up the world last time we met."

The Doctor sighed, "It's the Master again," he said simply.

Chang was silent for a moment before he said, "The Master! I thought we… you killed him. Didn't you shove him into that eye thing? Didn't you swear that he was dead?"

"I did. But apparently I was wrong. Now he's captured Rose and I have to stop him. And the only way that I can do that is if you and Grace come with me."

"Why? Why me? Why Grace? Didn't we go through enough the last time? We both died!"

"But you're not dead now. I promise that I will keep it that way. But I need you both because you both had contact with him. You both have his signature buried somewhere, deep in your DNA. If I can find it, if I can pull that signature out, I might have a chance against the Master this time. Otherwise Rose, Jack, me, and eventually, the universe, die."

Chang was silent for a moment before he calmly said, "Tell me, what's going on?"

"Look, Chang, I don't have a lot of time to explain it all but the basic story is, if the Master is able to gain control over Rose, he will have a key to the entire universe."

Chang asked, "Who is this Rose? What does she have to do with anything?"

"Everything," the Doctor said simply.

Martha, getting frustrated with the Doctor being so cryptic, took the phone from him and said, "Mr. Lee? I'm sorry to interrupt but you know how the Doctor is at explaining things I'm sure. My name's Martha Jones and I managed to get caught up in this whole mess as well. The point is, Rose has an untrained power over the entire universe. You know how the Eye of Harmony, once opened, had enough power to destroy the Earth and possibly the entire solar system?"

"Yes," he answered.

"Well, Rose has taken in all of the energy, power, and knowledge of the TARDIS which is infinitely more powerful than the Eye. Understand now?"

Chang was silent for a moment before he said, "I believe so."

"Will you help us then?" Martha asked.

"What choice do I have?" he said quietly.

"Not much," the Doctor said, taking back the phone. "You and Grace are probably still pretty high on the Master's list of people to destroy besides myself. You won't stand a chance once he gets a hold of that power."

"Alright, you win Doctor," Chang said. "What do you need me to do?"

"Take the next flight out of New York to Cardiff. Meet us at Grace's. I'll explain the rest from there."

"Alright, but one more thing, you haven't said, who is this Rose?"

The Doctor was silent for a moment before he answered, "A friend," he said non-committaly. "Now get on that plane and hurry it up" He said and was about to hang up the phone when Martha caught the phone and nodded for the Doctor and Sarah to get going. "I'll catch up, I just think that I should answer a couple more questions he might have," she told them.

The Doctor shrugged and walked out, followed by a bemused Sarah.

"Mr. Lee? It's Martha again. It looked like you asked the Doctor a question that he wasn't exactly willing to answer, and I think I know what it was."

Chang sighed as he said, "I just wanted to know who this Rose really is… to him?"

"That's what I thought," she said quietly.

"So…?" he prompted.

Martha sighed as she answered softly, "The woman he loves."

Chang sighed as well, "I see." There was silence for a moment before he said, "Thank you very much Martha Jones. Now I should go and catch that flight. I look forward to meeting you."

"See you soon, Mr. Lee."

"Please, call me Chang."

"Alright, Chang."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 

"Come on Doctor, just let us know… How do you expect to get the TARDIS," Sarah pleaded for what felt like the thousandth time. He was just not willing to part with any more of what was swimming around his head just yet.

"I told you, I'm not going to tell you until I know for sure it will work," he said.

Martha opened her mouth to say something but was quickly cut off by the Doctor, "And no, it's nothing that you will be able to help with so sharing it with you will not make a bit of difference."

They were all silent for the rest of the trip. Finally, they reached their platform and disembarked.

"You know, we might have done Grace the curiosity of calling her ahead of time and warning her rather than just popping up on her door step," Sarah said.

"Now where would the fun be in that?" the Doctor asked with a smile.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Half an Hour later, they were standing outside of a high rise apartment complex, looking up Grace's name on the buzzer list.

"Ah, here she is," the Doctor said as he pressed the button by her name.

A moment later a female voice came through the com system, "Who is it?"

The Doctor held down the button as he talked. "Hello there Grace. It's an old friend of yours popping by to reminisce about the old days. You know, back when your blundering killed my seventh body and road across San Francisco with my eighth self, trying to save the world and being possessed by evil beings. Ah the good old days."

There was a long pause on the other end before a very shocked voice answered back, "Doctor?"

"Hello Grace," he answered.

"Oh my god, Doctor! Come up! I'll let you in right away," she said as they heard a buzz and the door unlock.

Smiling, the Doctor pushed open the door and bounded up the stairs. The others were hard pressed to keep up with him as he rounded the corner and nearly ran into a breathless Grace.

She had been walking out of her apartment to meet him but now she stood there, staring at him as if she was unsure that this was really who she thought it was.

"Doctor?" she asked.

He smiled at her. "Grace, it's good to see you again."

"You… you look different," she said.

"Well another few hundred years of traveling will do that to a Time Lord," he answered. "Besides, it's not as if you didn't know that I change from time to time. You saw both my seventh and eighth self. Currently, you're looking at ten," he said as he backed up a step and spun around in front of her. "Not too bad, huh?"

She smiled. "Well it could be worse," she laughed.

It was then that she spotted the girls coming up behind him. "Uh-oh. We have quite a group. Something must be up."

"You could say that," Sarah said with a smile as she came up and held out her hand to Grace. "Hello, I'm Sarah Jane Smith."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Grace." she answered as she returned her shake.

As they let go, she glanced up to see Martha walking up with a smile. "I'm Martha Jones, and I'd like to say what an honor it is to meet you. I have read nearly all of your text books."

"Are you a doctor then?" she asked interested.

"I was trying to be when this strange man came and took me out to see the universe," she said with a smile.

"So how did you two end up with this lout?" Grace asked.

They smiled as the Doctor pretended to look offended. "Long story," Martha answered.

"Covering a lot of time," Sarah put in.

"Which you'll hear all about eventually," the Doctor said. "But right now we need to talk about some more urgent matters."

Grace looked at the Doctor and caught the seriousness that he was slipping into. "Alright. Let's talk in my apartment. It's kind of cramped here in the hallway."

The Doctor smiled again as he mysteriously said, "Not going to lock me out this time?"

Grace laughed slightly as she said, "As I recall I couldn't exactly keep you out last time."

"No one can," Sarah said flatly as Grace and the Doctor shared a small smile.

Grace looked at Sarah for a second, wondering what she meant but decided that it didn't matter. "Right down here is my apartment," she said as she led them a short distance to the end of the hall and through a door.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It took a few minutes for everyone to gather in her rather large living room of her flat as they prepared to share their strange story with yet another. The Doctor was looking over Grace's impressive bookshelf as Grace and the girls went into the kitchen to get some drinks.

"So, how _did_ you girls end up with him," Grace asked again.

Sarah shrugged, "I think it's about the same for both me and Martha. We wound up running into the Doctor at some point and he decided that we would be good to travel with and off we went."

Grace frowned slightly as she said, "So you have been traveling with him then?"

Both nodded. "I used to, anyway, a very long time ago," Sarah said.

"I'm his more recent traveling partner," Martha said.

Grace looked a bit lost in memory for a minute as she said distantly, "he once asked me to travel with him, but I stayed."

Sarah and Martha exchanged a look before Sarah asked, "If it's not too personal, might I ask why?"

Grace looked at her and said, "I was scared. He leads such an exciting yet dangerous life. When I met him, I nearly died. I did actually and then was brought back. I couldn't imagine going through perils like that on a daily basis. But to be honest, I had always thought that someday he would come back and give his offer again and then I might be ready for it. But he never came back."

The girls nodded. "That seems to be his way. He'll offer once, and once only."

"Except Rose," Martha mumbled.

Grace didn't hear her as they stepped out of the kitchen and the Doctor had just called over to her to talk and catch up. But Sarah did and looked at her questioningly.

"What do you mean?" she whispered.

"It's one of the stories that Jack told me that he had heard from Rose. The Doctor invited her to travel the universe with him and she refused. He left and then reappeared a few seconds later and offered a second time including that she could travel through time as well, which she then took him up on. I wouldn't be surprised if that is the first time that he's ever done that. I can't imagine him offering more than once; it's just not in his nature."

Sarah nodded, "I agree. It seems that he has been making exceptions for Rose longer than I realized."

Martha nodded as she realized that the Doctor was beginning to explain things to Grace. "We should join them," she said.

Sarah nodded as they took their seats with the other two.

"The Master?" Grace was saying surprised. "I thought he was dead."

"He found away out, again," the Doctor sighed. "I just don't seem to be able to ever rid myself of my enemies."

"So the Master has your two friends and you need help getting them?" she summed.

"That's about the whole of it," he answered.

Grace glanced at Sarah and Martha and saw that this wasn't quite the whole of it, but it seemed that she had all the information that she needed. He had finally come back and offered to take her away again.

"But I don't quite understand, why do you need me?" she asked.

"Because you came in contact with the Master. You were possessed by him for a brief time. And, hopefully, you still carry a piece of him with you that I can use against him," the Doctor explained.

"You mean to say, that I could still be possessed by that thing?" she asked, aghast.

"Well I doubt that very much. If there is anything left after the TARDIS brought you back to life, it would be far too small for him to be able to use on you again. But it just might be enough with Chang's help to use against him."

"Chang? Were meeting up with him too?" she asked.

Sarah leaned forward, "We already contacted him and he's flying from New York right now to meet us here," she explained.

"Amazing. I haven't seen him in a very long time. In fact, not long since I last saw you, Doctor. We've stayed in contact, but rarely see each other. I suppose a literal ocean of separation can do that."

"Why did you move to Cardiff anyway?" the Doctor asked.

Grace frowned a second as she recalled the reason that she had come there. "It's kind of a long story," she said.

"Well I think it will be a little while before Chang arrives. We have some time," Martha said.

Grace looked a little reluctant but then the Doctor spoke, "Well, we may have time before Chang arrives, but I have some things to accomplish before that. You girls go ahead and get acquainted and I'll go make some… preparations." And he stood up and started to stride to the door.

"What do you have to do?" Grace asked as she got up to follow him to the door.

"I need to make sure that I'll even be able to leave the planet," he said as he stepped out the door and strode off, leaving Grace staring after him for a moment.

She sighed and turned back to her other guests. "Well," she said. "I guess he hasn't changed a bit."

"No. He changes his face and some surface personality traits, but deep down, he's still the Doctor," Sarah said.

"So Grace, why did you come to Cardiff?" Martha asked as they all returned to their seats.

Grace forced a small laugh as she said, "Oh, you don't want to hear that drab story. It's nothing very exciting. I'd much rather hear about some of the things that you have seen and done while traveling with the Doctor."

Martha and Sarah exchanged a look before Sarah said, "We'd be happy to tell you all about it, but it seems only fair that you share a little bit of your story first."

"Oh," she said. "I… I suppose. Well, the whole reason I came over here was my husband."

"Oh!" Martha exclaimed. "I had no idea you were married."

"Well I'm not. Not anymore that is," she said.

"I'm sorry," Sarah said.

"Don't be," Grace said with a wave. "He was a self-absorbed first class bastard. We fought like cats and dogs. Ultimately, he left for a job in Paris and I stayed here. But in the few years that we had lived here together, I had decided how much I love this country and chose to stay. I changed my name back to my maiden name and now I live a comfortable life writing text books and going to plays."

"Well, sounds like you've had a pretty good go at it then," Sarah smiled.

Grace grew a little distant as she nodded and said, "Yeah, I guess so."

"But…" Martha prompted.

Grace sighed. "Oh, you girls seem to know me too well and we've only just met."

"That's because we have both been in your shoes," Sarah answered.

"And what shoes would that be?" she asked.

"In love with a man who can't love you back," Martha said bluntly.

Grace stared at them for a moment, surprised that they would bring such a thing up. But they were right. She had admitted to herself long ago that the only reason she had married Alfred was because he was British and was offering to take her away to foreign lands. She was trying to recapture what she had lost with the Doctor.

She nodded slowly to Martha and Sarah, "Yes, you are absolutely right that I am in love with him. But, you two as well?"

They both nodded. Sarah said, "It just seems to be how things work with him. Once you get to know him, you can't help but to fall in love but he just can't return that love. Especially now."

"Why now?" Grace asked.

"Because he has finally found someone who he loves in return and all of his emotions are tied up in her," Martha explained.

"Rose?" Grace asked, rather surprised.

They nodded again. "She traveled with him before me," Martha explained. "She became separated from him for what they had believed to be forever. It nearly tore him up. I know, I was with him while he was still recovering from her loss."

"But then the Master somehow found out about the encounter with the TARDIS that somehow changed her, giving her more power than even she knew that she could ever have," Sarah picked up. "He laid a trap for the Doctor and used him as bait for her. The Master didn't know that she was cut off, though she found a way across anyway."

Martha then took over. "The Master had tortured the Doctor to an inch of his life by the time Rose arrived. And he nearly succeeded in capturing Rose as well, but at the last second, her powers surfaced on their own and allowed for all of us to escape."

"But the Doctor was still very weak from his encounter and the Master was still after them both," Sarah said. "The Doctor was going to drop Rose and Martha off on Earth and go after the Master with Jack. But Rose knew that he was too weak for that and so she, now having some sense over her powers, put him to sleep and left him and Martha with me."

Grace took a second to take the whole story in. "So now the Doctor has learned that Jack and Rose are in trouble and we need to help them?"

"Right," Martha said.

"Then where did he wonder off to then?" Grace asked.

Both shrugged. "No idea," Sarah said. "But I'm sure it has something to do with getting us to 1869 somehow."

"1869?! Why on Earth are we going there?"

"Apparently that's a time that he can find the TARDIS," Martha answered.

"Find it? It's lost?"

"Rose and Jack took it go after the Master. The Doctor needs to find a previous incarnation of himself with his TARDIS to get there," Sarah said.

"Previous? What one? Not eight is it?"

"No, I think he said nine," Martha answered.

Grace took a moment to digest all of this. "So, how does he expect to travel through time to get his time machine?"

"That's what we want to know," Martha said.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 

"If I were a division of Torchwood that was set up to study a rift, where would I put a base of operations?" the Doctor said to himself as he stood beside the fountain in millennium square.

"Obviously it would have to be right on top of it, but that would mean that it would have to be right here," he thought for a moment as he turned in circles, looking for some clue.

Just then, he saw what appeared to be a young man step out of thin air and stroll away from him. The Doctor burst into a wide grin as he watched the man walk away. "Clever," he said to himself as he approached where he had seen the man appear from.

He stepped directly on the square that a moment ago produced a man from nothing and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. "I wonder where they got a perception scrambler from," he mumbled to himself as he fiddled with the settings on the screwdriver. After a few seconds of finding what he wanted, he aimed it at the square of concrete that he was standing on and activated his device.

There was a slight hum first from the screwdriver and then from the ground beneath his feet. As the hum below him increased, there was a slight vibration just before the concrete began to slowly lower form the surrounding pavement. He was gently descending into the lair of Torchwood Cardiff.

As the lift came to a slow and a stop he prepared to step off, but as he was doing so, someone walked into the room. She had her nose stuck in a book as she walked, saying without looking up, "Forget something again, Ianto?"

"In a manner of speaking," the Doctor answered with a grin.

The girl immediately looked up from her book and froze just long enough for the Doctor to wave and say, "hello."

No sooner had he dropped his hand then her book hit the floor and her pistol was in her hand, aimed at the Doctor. "Who the hell are you?!" she demanded. "And how the hell did you get down here?!"

"Hold on a second," the Doctor said as he looked at the girl. "Don't I know you?"

"I certainly don't know you so you better tell me quick what you're doing here," she answered.

"I'm sure that we've met before," he insisted as he began to reach into his coat to pull out his glasses.

"Ah, I don't think so. Keep your hands where I can see them. Now I'm only going to ask you one more time, who are you?"

"Name's the Doctor," he said with a grin as he moved to get closer to her. This time she began to lower her gun as he walked to the steps that brought him to the floor.

"The Doctor? Jack's Doctor?!" she asked, suddenly dropping her military like attitude.

"That'd be the one," he said with a smile. He was now standing next to her as he pulled out his glasses and put them on. "I know I've see you somewhere before," he said as he thought very hard as to where or when that might have been.

"Rose seemed to recognize me too. But, Doctor, if you're here, then that means that Rose found you and got you out. Is Jack ok? Where is he?"

"Wait a minute, you're Gwen… Gwyneth, aren't you?! But that's not possible. You're dead… you died in 1869."

"I have as little idea of what you're talking about as when Rose said the same thing. And it doesn't really matter right now. Just tell me, where's Jack?"

"How could you possibly be here? It just doesn't make any sense," he muttered as he continued to walk by her and head into the main section of Torchwood.

"Doctor!" she called as she ran up to him and grabbed his arm, spinning him back around to look at her. "What has happened to Jack!?"

He looked at her as he forced himself to abandon the problem that his mind was currently working on to avoid contact with his emotions. "He's lost, Gwen. I lost him," he said quietly as he felt himself beginning to wander down paths of self-guilt.

"Lost? What do you mean?" Gwen asked as she began to fear the worse. "He can't be…"

"No," the Doctor said quickly. "At least I'm sure he's not. But he has been captured and so has Rose." He said as he began to turn from Gwen and head back into Torchwood. "That's why I'm here. I need to use the rift to make it back to…" and then he broke off again.

"Hold on," he said, turning back to face Gwen once again. She nearly ran into him with the suddenness of his stopping. "I need to get back to the same time that I first met you. And here you are, defying all laws of nature and physics in this time period. This has to mean something."

"Doctor, what are you talking about? I was born here, in Cardiff in 1977. I've always been here and I have never done any time traveling. So how is it that both you and Rose are so sure that you met me in 18 whatever?"

"1869," he said in a distracted voice as he pulled out and put on his glasses to continued studying Gwen, making her rather uncomfortable. "There has to be some reason for it," he muttered.

"Really Doctor, Rose and Jack are in trouble. Does it matter right now?"

He shook himself as he turned away again and set himself back to his previous mission. "No I suppose not. But I will definitely be back soon to figure this all out. Though… I might be able to use this…"

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver as he walked and began to use it to scan for the precise location of the rift. "I need to find the weakest point in the rift and figure out how to use it to send me back through time," he said to Gwen as he began to wander about the tunnel, following the reading that he was getting from his screwdriver.

"Jack and Tosh once were sent back in time by the rift," Gwen mentioned.

"Really? How?" he asked as he spun around to face her.

"Well, I'm not really sure. And it seemed to be more of an outsider influence that brought them there anyway. But they went inside an old abandoned building in downtown Cardiff and suddenly they found themselves during the war."

"Hmm, I was around a bit during that time too…" he muttered as he continued to look for the best place. "But not in Cardiff. Using the rift to go through time is risky enough, let alone time and space."

"Why do you need to use the rift to go back in time anyway? Can't you just use your ship?"

"I would, if Jack and Rose hadn't run off with it. I need to find one of my past lives and use his TARDIS to get to them… Ah ha!" he exclaimed as he finally pinpointed the spot he was looking for. "This is it!"

"Great!" Gwen said. "Now what?"

"I have no idea."

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Grace, Martha, and Sarah were all sitting around, reminiscing about their personal encounters with the Doctor when the com buzzer sounded. Grace got up and walked to the door, pressing the button next to the speaker she asked, "who is it?"

"Grace? It's Chang," a male voice answered her.

"Chang! We've been waiting for you. Come right up!" she said excitedly as she pressed the button to let him in.

A few moments later, Chang knocked on the door, which Grace was quick to open. Sarah and Martha both stood from where they had been seated and watched as Grace threw her arms around Chang and they hugged as a welcome.

"It's really been too long," Grace said muffled into his shoulder.

"Yes it has," he replied just before they broke apart.

Grace took him by the hand and led him into her flat. "Chang, this is Martha Jones and Sarah Jane Smith; they're friends with the Doctor," Grace introduced.

"I've already talked some with Martha. It's good to meet you in person," he said as he walked over to her and shook her hand.

"And any friend of the Doctor is a friend of mine," he said as he turned to Sarah and shook her hand as well.

"So what have I missed then?" he asked as they all took seats once again. "Where is the Doctor?"

Grace smiled as she said, "Oh, he's off bending the laws of physics to save the universe again."

"Never changes does he," Chang replied with a grin of his own.

"That seems to be the conclusion that we have all come up with," Sarah said.

Martha spoke up, "He should be back soon, I would think. He's pretty anxious to be finding Rose again."

Chang nodded, "I can imagine."

Just then, they all jumped as they began to here the familiar sound of the TARDIS engines grinding. They glanced around as a breeze seemed to pass through the apartment. After a second, their eyes all fell to the same corner of the room where a blue police box slowly materialized.

They all stood and began to walk over to where it sat, waiting for the Doctor to emerge.

Suddenly the door flew open and a man whom none of them had ever seen before dressed in all black with a black leather jacket stepped out. He took a quick look around before saying with a manic grin, "Well, looks like I'm just in time for the reunion then."

A more familiar voice from behind him answered, "and just think, we still have a couple more guests to pick up."

**A/N: yeah, I know this one is really short, but things are about to really pick up so hold on tight…**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 

Gwen stared at the Doctor as she said, "If you don't know how to do it, then why think that you can?"

"Just because I haven't figured the specifics out yet, doesn't mean that I won't," he countered.

"And when were you planning on figuring it out?'

"Honestly I thought I would by now, but apparently it's going to take a little longer," he said as he pulled a piece of chalk from one of his coat pockets and drew and on the floor where he had found the weak point of the rift.

"So now what?" Gwen asked.

"Now… now I try to…" but he broke off as he began to poke about the room. "What's this then?" He asked as he caught sight of the hand in the glass jar.

"Other than it was Jack's, I'm not all tat sure. I know it was important to him though," she said.

The Doctor picked it up to examine it closely. But as his hand touched the glass, it began to flash lights and bubble furiously. "Interesting," he said as he grabbed a hold of it and carried it over to a workbench.

He set it down and pulled out his sonic screwdriver once again and began to scan it. "Well that makes no sense," he muttered as he stepped back. He thought a second and then held up his right hand in front of him while scanning it with his screwdriver with his left.

"Where'd he get that, and what was he doing?" the Doctor asked himself as he began to pace while he thought.

"Jack wanted to find me, right?" he asked Gwen.

"It seemed to be the thing that he wanted most," she answered.

"So then it makes sense that he would come up with a way to detect me. But where did the hand come from?' he continued to address himself.

"You know what it is then?" Gwen asked. It was something that she had wondered ever since the first day that she had wandered into Torchwood pretending to deliver a pizza.

"The device itself is simple really. It uses the DNA from the sample and alerts whenever it detects a match. But Jack seemed to modify just enough for it to be able to pick up the magnetic signature that the DNA emits rather than the specific DNA strand."

"Why?" she asked as if she knew what he was talking about.

"Because he must have realized that I change from time to time but my magnetic signature stays the same."

"Wait, you're saying that this thing is meant to find you?" she asked.

"Yup."

"Then that hand…"

"It's mine. But it's this hand," he said as he waved his right hand. "And I have no idea how he could have gotten my hand while it's still attached… Unless…" he paused for a second before causing Gwen to jump as he exclaimed, "Of course! It was chopped off right after my last regeneration during the fight with the Sycorax! I was still regenerating so it was able to grow back. Clever Jack!" he said with a smile.

"That's your hand…" Gwen asked again, still trying to get her mind to wrap around it.

"Yes. And thanks to Jack, and hopefully you, I now have a way to get to 1869."

Gwen looked at him for a moment before saying, "Yeah, you lost me again."

"All I have to do is modify…" he began to ramble as he worked on the jar with his screwdriver. Gwen listened to the techno-babble that he spouted off as his hands flew, but none of it was really making any sense to her. She watched as he opened the jar and removed the hand… his hand, she told herself… He then tinkered with the things that connected it and the various components of the device. Finally, she realized that he was talking about what her part in his plan was.

"Now," he was saying. "All I need is some of your DNA to input to this and it will scan for you."

"Wait, I thought you were looking for you. Why do you have to find me? I'm right here."

"Because you are also in 1869, whether you believe it or not. Still not sure how, but you are there with my past life. I have modified this to scan temporally and once I get your temporal coordinates, I can use the information to enter into your system here to begin to manipulate the rift to bring us there."

"Us?! What do you mean us?" she demanded.

"I might need your help. When I was there before, the only one who could manipulate the rift was you. It just seems like it would be best if you come along." He noticed her worried look and then quickly added. "I'll have my other self bring you back here as soon as we meet up with him."

"But, I don't even know what is going on. I have no idea why you think that I am in 1869. I don't know anything about manipulating the rift. And I certainly don't like the idea of just leaping through the rift and hoping to come out in the right place and time. I've seen this thing opened before and I did not like what came out."

"That's not going to happen this time Gwen. I promise. We're going to step through and take a minute to find me and then I'll bring you right back. It's no big deal."

She eyed him skeptically. "Please Gwen. This is important. Jack and Rose need our help."

She softened as soon as he said that. Really, that was all he needed to say in the first place. If there was someone in need and she was their hope, then she would step up and take the risk. She could do it them… do it for Jack.

"Alright, let's do this then," she said.

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It was just a few minutes later that she watched over the Doctor's shoulder while he inputted the computations into the Torchwood system and prepared to active the rift. "Now Gwen, when I press this button we need to get over there to the X as fast a possible, alright?' he said.

Gwen nodded in response.

"Ok, here goes," he said as he hit the button that he was talking about. But as he was about to run, he realized that nothing happened.

"Hmm," he said as he returned to the computer screen. "That should have worked," he muttered. He stared at the screen for some time as he let his mind race though all the possible reasons for the failure. Finally he pulled himself out of his thoughts and looked at Gwen.

She felt a bit uncomfortable as he stared at her for a moment as if he was measuring her. "What?" she finally asked.

"Gwen," he said. "I need to ask you to go and stand on the X right now."

"Why?" she asked apprehensively.

"I have a theory that I need to test."

She didn't like the sound of that, but she nodded and slowly walked over to where the chalk X was still on the floor. She carefully stepped onto it as if it would burn her, and then turned around to face the Doctor, looking hesitantly at him.

"Good," he said to her. "Now, close your eyes. I need you to empty all thought," he told her.

"How do I do that?" she asked.

"Just… just concentrate on your breathing. Think about that and nothing else," he told her as she looked at him for a moment questioningly and then closed her eyes. He watched as she took several deep breaths. He could see that she was actually accomplishing what he had asked as the worry lines in her face began to ease and relax and eventually fade away.

He smiled to himself as he thought that this time, it was going to work. He turned back to the computer and inputted the numbers once again. This time, something seemed to be happening before he had even hit the button. He glanced up at Gwen and noticed that a faint bluish light was beginning to surround her.

He nodded once to himself as he reached down and hit the button, activating the rift. He turned and began to run to Gwen. Her eyes flew open as the floor beneath her began to vibrate and the blue light that was now surrounding her became piercing.

"Doctor?" she called to him.

"Gwen, grab my hand!" he called as he raced up to her, extending his hand. She reached out and pulled him right up next to her just as the world seemed to dissolve around them.

One second she was looking at the Torchwood lab, then next all she knew was color and light as it felt as if she was falling. She nearly panicked, but she could feel the Doctor's hand gripping her's and she knew that at least she wasn't alone.

Then, as suddenly as everything had vanished, it all came into being once again. It felt as if she had been dropped right into wherever she currently was. It was very dim and cold. It reminded her of the creepy basement that her grandparents used to have.

She was about to ask what just happened when there was a chilling scream while a blue light appeared out of thin air, just above her head and swiftly rushed to the cement ceiling overhead and passed through it.

"What?…" she breathed.

"Gelth," the Doctor said in a voice that Gwen didn't like the sound of. "It was us… we cracked the bridge…" he said.

"What?" she asked him.

"The Gelth have been trying to use the rift to cross into this world for sometime, but it wasn't until shortly before Rose and I arrived here that they seemed to be able to do so. I think that our crossing the rift weakened it enough to allow them through."

"So that thing then was…?"

"A gaseous being from another world that wants to possess the dead and take over this one. And we are the trigger that sets everything in motion."

"Ah… of course…"

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"Sneed and company offer their most sincerest apologies sir in this most trying hour," Mr. Sneed said.

"Grandmama had a good ending Mr. Sneed, but she was so full of life. I can't believe she's gone."

"Not gone Mr. Redpath sir, just… sleeping."

"May I have a moment?"

"Yes of course. I should be in the next, ah, room… should you require anything."

The young man nodded as Mr. Sneed left the room. He was quickly overcome with grief as he closed his eyes and leaned heavily against the casket of his dead grandmother.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes just in time to witness the impossible; his dead grandmother was looking at him and had reached up and grabbed him by the throat. He tried to call out, but his air was cut off from him. All he managed to do was thrash some and knock something over.

It was enough to get Mr. Sneed's attention though and he entered the room quickly. "Oh no…" He said calmly as he made his way over to where his client was struggling with his once dead grandmother. He pulled the boy from her grip and began to wrestle her back into her casket. "Gwyneth!" He called out as he tried to close her into the box. "Get down here now! We've got another one!"

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A floor below, the Doctor and Gwen heard his cry. "That'd be the woman that we came across," the Doctor muttered. "At least, I think so anyway."

"Now what?" Gwen asked him.

"Well, we can't interfere in the events that have already happened. But of course it seems that we are helping to make them happen, so I'm not sure. But Rose and I should be turning up here in an hour or so, so I guess we'll just have to wait until then."

"What? Down here?" she asked. "What is this place anyway?" she asked as she began to glance around the darkened room.

"Ah… trust me, you don't want to know," the Doctor said as he moved them out of the arch that they had been standing under and towards the door. "I think that we'll be fine if we wait here." He said as he brought them just outside of the room that they were in.

"How do you expect to talk to yourself if you don't want to interfere with what's going on?" she asked.

"Haven't figured that out yet. The whole regeneration process makes specific memories a bit hard to track down. I'm trying to remember a time when I might have been separate from everyone else that I won't be missed for a few moments."

"A few moments?" Gwen said. "Isn't it going to take a little longer than that to bring me back to my time and then rescue Rose and Jack?"

"Yes, but you're forgetting, it's a time machine. I only need a moment to explain things and then we can leave and he can come back right after we left; and poof… no messing things up here and I get to where I need to be."

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Gwen and the Doctor listened as they heard Rose screaming for help above them. The Doctor was tense with wanting to rush up there himself, but he stayed put. "Shouldn't we do something?" Gwen asked.

"No," he said through gritted teeth.

They listened as what sounded like a door was kicked in and a brief bit of scuffling before another piercing scream sounded.

"I think I know when I need to find me," the Doctor said after a few moments of silence.

"What do I need to do?" she asked.

"You're coming up with me and you are not to be seen by anyone or touch anything, got that?" he told her sternly.

She nodded her head. "Yes, Doctor."

"Good, now stay close," he said as he began to quietly climb up the steps.

As they approached the heavy wooden door at the top, they could distantly make out two voices. One was incredibly odd for the Doctor to be hearing since it was his own voice, but not the one that he was currently used to. "Wow, I really did have a Northern sound," he muttered to himself. The other voice he knew at once to be Charles Dickens.

He held them near the door as he listened to an old conversation.

"Doctor," Gwen whispered. "What is it?"

"It's me and Charles Dickens having a conversation. I should be leaving any minute now," he answered.

"Charles Dickens!" she whispered excitedly.

"Sorry, we're not going to be seeing him this time around," he said with a smile.

He suddenly tensed as he said, "Alright, here we go."

They heard as footsteps walked past the door. Quickly and quietly, the Doctor pushed the door open and walked into the hallway, dragging Gwen close behind him. He glanced around and saw the retreating backside of his former self walking away from them.

Doctor ten was about to call to him when suddenly he stopped, mid-step. He seemed ridged and anxious in the split second before he spun around, sonic screwdriver in hand.

"Who are you?" he demanded as his eyes fell on Doctor Ten. Nine could tell that there was someone behind this man who stood in front of him, but she was mostly hidden behind. Nine stared at Ten as various thoughts rushed through his head. Then, the feeling that had forced him to turn around intensified as he heard a soft voice in his head answer, "You know who I am."

"No…" Nine gasped. "You're all dead," he said.

Ten nodded, "Yes, they are. We're all that is left. And that only makes one," he answered.

Nine looked at him for another moment before he relaxed and said, "Which one then?"

"Ten," he answered.

"And who's with you?" Nine asked as he tried to peer around Ten.

Gwen stepped out just enough for him to see her face. "What's she doing here? With you?" he demanded.

"This isn't the Gwyneth you know. It's a long story that I'll fill you in on as we go, but I need your help and the faster we leave this timeline, the faster you can return to it so that nothing is changed. What is happening here is very important and we can't risk altering it, even a little."

"Then why are you here?"

"Like I said, I need your help and I had to risk it. It's Rose, she's in trouble," Ten said seriously.

Nine almost laughed as he said, "Yeah, what else is new?"

Ten sighed before saying, "Look, you know that I wouldn't be here if it wasn't important. Let's just get to the TARDIS and we can talk once we leave this timeline."

Nine nodded, "Alright then. Yours or mine?"

"Has to be yours. I don't have mine."

"You don't?! Then how…?" he began but Ten cut him off again.

"Not now. I tell you after we leave."

Nine nodded once again and turned and led them out of the house and down a side street where his big blue police box of a spaceship stood. Quickly he pulled out his key and opened it, allowing Ten and Gwen to enter ahead of him. He went in last, securing the door behind him.

As he turned back around, he saw Ten at the controls, preparing to send the TARDIS into the time vortex.

"Oui! What do you think you're doing?" he called as he quickly walked up to Ten.

"Relax, I'm you, remember? I think I'm just as qualified to fly this thing as you. Maybe even more so since I have a few years on you," Ten replied as engines began to whirr as the ship entered the time vortex.

"Alright, now can you explain what is going on and what was so important to risk a paradox?" Nine said as he leaned up against one of the support columns in the control room, arms crossed over his chest.

Ten took a breath and said, "It's the Master."

Nine immediately dropped his pose of apparent uncaring as he stood strait and looked Ten right in the eye. "That can't be," he breathed. "I…we killed him. He was sucked into the Eye. There's no way he could have lived, let alone escaped."

Ten nodded, "That's what I said, but apparently we underestimated him… again."

"And Rose is caught up with him?" he asked, beginning to become nervous.

"It's a bit more complicated then you might realize. And since I am going to need your full help on this, I have to tell you everything, which means…"

"Which means that I'll have to wipe my memory of all of this afterward to prevent contaminating the timeline. Yes, I know."

"This is going to be and interesting conversation with you two always finishing each other's sentences," Gwen said.

They both looked as her as Doctor Nine said, "And Gwyneth? Why is she here? And dressed like that?"

"That's one thing that I don't think is all that important to all of this so it would be best if we just brought her back to where I got her and left her story out for now."

Gwen looked like she was about to protest when Ten turned to her and said, "Gwen, I know that you would be a big help in this, but you need to be at Torchwood. With just opening the rift again, there is no telling what new things might pop up in Cardiff."

Gwen looked at him and nodded. "Alright. I guess you're right," she answered. "But you better show up at my door the second you have them, got it?" she said.

"You bet," he said with a grin.

He then turned around and pulled a few levers and pushed some buttons before they felt and heard the TARDIS rematerializing. "Home again, home again," Ten said as he walked over to the door and opened it for Gwen.

She looked out and saw that they were inside Torchwood Cardiff, practically right where she had left. At the threshold of the door, she could still see the chalk X. "Take care now Doctor, and bring them home."

"I will," he said simply as he allowed the door to close. He heard as the ship began to once again dematerialize and he turned around to see Nine at the controls now.

"Alright, where to begin?" Ten said.

"How about the beginning," Nine answered as he turned around to face his future self.

"That would be at your ending…"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 

"Doctor?" Chang, Grace, Sarah, and Martha all asked in unison to the man who stood in front of them.

He smiled at them all as his future self came up to stand just behind. "Yup," they both answered together.

"My what big ears you had," Martha muttered.

"Hey!" Nine said to her as he turned his attention to her. "Why her?" he asked Ten. "She seems a bit cheeky to me."

"Of course, pick on the only one that you didn't picked… yet," Ten smiled and winked at Martha.

"You're Nine then?" Sarah asked.

"Yup. And now, if all of you would join us," he said stepping back and sweeping his arm as a welcome inside. "We could get on with this."

They all entered and as soon as the last was in, Nine closed the door and Ten sent the TARDIS into the time vortex. "Where's your Rose then?" Martha asked Nine.

"Still in 1869," he answered. "Couldn't risk her coming along and meeting the other her, could be very bad."

"Yeah, I heard about it. Reapers… end of the world… bad things," Martha answered.

"How?…" Nine began.

"Ah, not important," Ten interrupted.

Nine looked at Ten and realized that it was another thing that he would find out… eventually.

Nine shook his head and looked at Martha before muttering, "You're going to be trouble," as he turned away.

"Hey, it wasn't…" She began.

"Martha!" Ten stopped her. "Not important," he said significantly to her.

Martha realized that it was something that Nine probably shouldn't know about or he would change his future actions. Even though she knew that the whole thing with Rose's father was not necessarily a good thing, it might mess up other events in the timeline if it never happened.

She nodded to her Doctor as she realized that Nine was having Chang and Grace follow him somewhere else in the ship. Martha and Sarah watched as they left before approaching Ten.

"How'd you get there?" Sarah asked. "1869?"

Ten smiled and said, "Oh, just copied another trick from Rose. Used the rift."

The girls looked at each other before saying in unison, "you can do that?"

"Apparently the rift is very vast and extends through, time, space, and dimensions. It is quite useful, obviously, but too dangerous. When all of this is done, I'm going to have to figure a way to seal it, permanently."

"Then Rose really will be stuck here, away from her family," Martha reminded.

The Doctor looked a little sad before he said. "I know. But I think that she understood that anyway when she came back." He paused for a moment before adding, "But I'll give her the option one last time to go back before I seal it. I would understand if she wanted to," he said half-heartedly.

Martha and Sarah exchanged another look that said, _you might understand, but you would be torn apart. _ But they were obviously both agreed that Rose would choose to stay with her Doctor anyway.

To change the subject, Martha asked, "So now what?"

"Now we return to the asteroid and figure out a way to save Rose and Jack and stop the Mast…" but he suddenly broke off as seemed to sway a moment, bringing his hand to his head and slamming his eyes closed.

"Doctor?" Sarah and Martha both asked worriedly.

He was breathing quickly as he answered, "He's back."

It took the girls a second to figure out what the Doctor was talking about, but then they realized that it must have been the Master again, trying to regain control of the Doctor.

Martha quickly grabbed a hold of him as he started to stumble while Sarah left to get the other Doctor. "Hold on," Martha said to him.

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"Doctor!" Sarah called as she entered the lab where Nine was running scans on DNA samples he had collected from Grace and Chang. "You're… I mean… Oh! Ten needs your help. It's the Master again!" she said, trying to find some way of saying that he needed his own help.

Nine looked up at her and then quickly strode out of the room, not saying a word. Grace and Chang watched him leave before getting up and following after him and Sarah.

As they entered the control room, they found Ten sitting on the floor being supported up by Martha as he seemed to still be fighting against something. Without a word, Nine knelt beside him and reached out, touching his fingers to Ten's face. They all watched as Nine closed his eyes.

His face began to take on a look of concentration as Ten's began to relax. Ten lowered his own hand from his head and didn't seem as unstable as he had a moment ago. A minute later, they both opened their eyes.

"You realize that this is only temporary?" Ten said to Nine. "That he will find a way to break through and now he might even be able to get to you as well."

Nine nodded. "Yup, but we're both needed right now. Had to risk it," he said with a grin and stood up, reaching a hand down to Ten to help him up from the floor. Ten took it and stood up with Martha quickly rising beside him.

"What did you do?" Martha asked Nine.

"It's… complicated," he answered.

"Let me guess… Time Lord stuff?" Martha said.

Nine and Ten exchanged a look before saying, "Something like that," together.

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A while later they were all in the lab, waiting as Nine continued to run scans. Ten had been doing some of his own, but now he was pacing about the room. "I don't get it," he was saying. "Why now? Why did he wait until now to try and get me again?"

Nine continued working as he calmly said, "Maybe whatever Rose did to you just wore off."

"But I woke up. That was part of what she did. And from what I know from Jack, he's died enough times… if what she does can wear off, why hasn't his?"

"Maybe the Master just didn't realize that he was able to reach you again until now," Martha suggested.

Ten thought for a second. "No," he said, "Knowing him, he'd keep trying until he got me. He wouldn't have left it and then just come back."

"Maybe it was Rose," Sarah said, almost afraid to say it. "Maybe something stopped her from protecting you."

Nine stopped his scans as both him and Ten looked at Sarah. "I just thought that we might consider all the possibilities," she said rationally.

Nine and Ten exchanged a look before Ten asked, "how close?"

Nine answered, "It's here, it's just going to take some time to isolate it."

"Then we'll have to buy some more time," Ten said as he walked out of the room.

"You can't face him yet. You have nothing to work with!" Nine called after him, knowing full well that his argument was falling on deaf ears. Ten was doing exactly what he would do, even thought of doing. But it was something that he just needed to say.

"What is he doing?" Martha asked anxiously.

"Bringing us to them. He's going to try and find a way to get Rose and Jack before I've found what we need to defeat the Master."

"But… he was already caught by him once. What makes him think that he'll have better success now?" Grace asked.

"Nothing, but if I know him… which I'm pretty sure I do… He can't just sit and do nothing while Rose and Jack need him. And I completely agree."

"Of course you do! You're him!" Sarah exclaimed with a frustrated sigh and stormed out of the room. Martha looked a little torn for a second before she followed after Sarah.

"Doctor? What about us?" Grace asked, signaling herself and Chang. "What should we do?"

"I'm going to need you two to stay here with me while I finish up these scans. I don't know if I'll still need you or not, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

Grace and Chang both seemed a bit relieved. They'd been up against the Master once already, they weren't exactly jumping to do so again.

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"Doctor, what use are you going to be if you still don't have a weapon against the Master?" Sarah was saying as Martha entered the control room.

The Doctor was flipping switches and punching buttons as he resolutely ignored her. "Doctor, you can't expect to save her if you can hardly stand against him yourself. If she's in trouble when she has access to essentially limitless power over time and space, what makes you think that you'll be able to do anything?"

His face was set in a determined mask as he continued to operate the controls while answering Sarah with his silence.

Martha came over to them as she heard the sound of the TARDIS rematerializing. They had landed.

The Doctor finally turned from the controls and looked Sarah in the eye. They stared at each other for a moment before she finally relaxed and said, "Alright, you win. But I'm coming with you."

"And me," Martha said.

The Doctor shook his head. "No, it's too dangerous."

"That's why you need us. There's no telling if you'll fall under his influence again or not and if you do, you'll need someone there." Martha said.

"If I do, then it would be better if I were alone. You should understand that Martha," he answered.

"I understand why you fear it, but I also realize that you are going to need some type of help. Even if it's as little as running back here to get your counterpart, you need backup," she answered. "And I'm sure that that is something you also know. That's the whole reason that you chose to take me with you in the first place, isn't it?"

He thought back to that time right after he had left Donna. She had told him that he needed someone, anyone, who could hold him back. And he knew she was right, even if he wasn't ready to admit that to himself at the time. That's why when he met Martha he couldn't let her go. He had tried, but he knew that he needed someone with him.

Slowly he nodded to himself before he nodded once firmly saying, "Alright, let's go then. All of us."

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They stepped out into an empty room. The Doctor knew that his TARDIS wasn't exactly stealth so he had expected some type of welcoming committee. The lack of acknowledgement of his arrival was a bit unnerving.

"This is odd," Sarah said, echoing his thoughts.

"I don't like it," the Doctor said as he pulled his screwdriver from his pocket.

They slowly and quietly traversed the large cavernous room that they had materialized in, listening and waiting for some type of ambush that never came. They soon reached a hallway that ran to the left and right from the room they were in.

"I think this is where the TARDIS was parked before," Martha said. "Jack and I were held down that way," she pointed to the right hallway.

The Doctor stopped and looked first down the right and then the left. AS his attention turned to the left passage, the girls watched as his face filled with concentration.

"Doctor?" Martha asked worriedly as Sarah brought a hand up to his arm.

"It's alright," he said as he relaxed, just a little. "It's still not strong enough."

The girls looked worriedly to each other but knew that there was little they could do for him now. The best thing to do was to find Jack and Rose and destroy the Master once and for all.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 

The three crept down the hall to the left. The Doctor felt certain that that was the way to go… something just told him so. There was no one in sight and it was absolutely silent. The girls began to worry that maybe the Master had left the asteroid and fled somewhere else with Rose and Jack.

But the Doctor knew they must still be there. The Master didn't want to make it difficult to find her; he was all too ready to capture the Doctor and complete his revenge he had been planning for goodness knows how long.

As they walked, they began to heart something coming towards them that sounds like it was on wheels. They flattened themselves again the wall as a small metal object rolled into view. I was K-9.

"K-9!" Sarah said excitedly before the Doctor could shush her.

The Dog turned and faced them. "Master?" he said.

"Yes, K-9. It's me," the Doctor said, stepping in front of Martha and Sarah, getting closer to his dog.

"Master!" K-9 began to sound as if calling for someone. His laser began to come out from his mouth as the Doctor's heart sank.

"I'm so sorry," he said quietly to the dog as he brought his hand up with his sonic screwdriver in it. He pressed the activation button and K-9 began to spark and roll around sporadically as he continued to call "Master!" each time the sound was fainter, and lower in pitch until finally the dog seemed to completely shut down.

"K-9!" Sarah exclaim as she approached the dog.

"He was reprogrammed," the Doctor sighed, feeling very badly about having to deactivate his dog like that.

"You can fix him? Can't you?" Sarah said, nearly in tears.

"I think so, but it will have to wait," the Doctor answered as he knelt beside Sarah and K-9. "Right now we need to find Rose and Jack. But I promise we won't leave K-9 behind, Sarah."

Sarah nodded as she stood, giving her dog a slight pat before following after the Doctor and Martha once again.

It wasn't long before they came to the room once again where the Doctor had all too recently been imprisoned. Of course, none of them really knew it. Martha had never been down that hall, Sarah hadn't been there, and the Doctor had been too out of it to pay close attention when Rose helped him escape.

Still, it was the first room that they had come to and they felt the need to investigate. But, as soon as they entered the room, the Doctor knew exactly where they were. He gave a faint, yet clear gasp as he looked in on the room. Everything was the same as when he had left it. The table, the light, the metal door across from them, all still there. Even the psycho recorder was still set up.

But then he realized that not only was it set up, it was attached to something. Wires ran from the recorder to the table.

The Doctor raced over to the table, quickly propelling himself around to see who it was that had taken his place. As he looked down, Martha and Sarah could see the look of devastation and horror on his face while they ran up beside him. It was Rose.

But she didn't look as if she had been tortured as the Doctor had in that same position. But eerily, she laid there, eyes open and unseeing, staring up at the ceiling above her.

The Doctor was nearly overcome with fear as he began to mutter, "no, no, no…" while he reached out and placed his fingers against her neck. For a brief second, a look of panic crossed his face before one of confusion replaced it.

"What is it, Doctor?" Martha asked as she went to stand on the other side of Rose, reaching for a pulse herself.

The Doctor shook his head as he tried to figure out what was going on. "She has a pulse, he said distantly. "But it's so slow… too slow. It can't possibly be able to sustain human life."

He then glanced up at the readings that the recorder beside her were giving. It was practically nothing. Just the faintest flicker of activity. Martha looked too and before she could stop herself she blurted out, "It looks as if she's brain dead." As she heard herself, she threw her hands over her mouth, realizing that that was not what the Doctor had wanted to hear right then.

But he didn't seem to hear her anyway as he continued to intently study the screen. "She's not brain dead," he finally announced. "She's in a very deep stasis. Much deeper than is healthy for a human, but she's still in there. I think if we wake her up soon, she'll be alright."

"What do we do?" Sarah asked.

"You two, go back to the TARDIS, explain to myself what is going on. He'll know what he needs to do. I'll start getting all of this stuff off of her and bring her to you."

"But… what about…?" Martha began.

"I know, both the Master and Jack are still here somewhere. So be careful and I will be too. Now, go!" he said as he began to hurriedly pull the wires off of Rose.

Martha and Sarah nodded and ran out of the back door, heading for the TARDIS.

No sooner had they disappeared out the door than a voice suddenly made the Doctor jump and turn around.

"Please tell me it's really you?" he heard.

As his eyes adjusted to the dim light at the edges of the room, the Doctor realized that he was looking at a rather haggard Jack.

"Jack!" the Doctor cried. "How long have you been there? What's going on?" he demanded.

"I've been in here a while, though I think I passed out for a bit. Broke out of my cell a while ago and went to find Rose. Obviously I did, but I haven't been in very good shape to make it out of here yet."

The Doctor, seeing that Jack was exhausted but not in any immediate danger, turned his attention back to Rose as he continued to free her. "Do you know what he's done to her?" the Doctor asked, back turned to Jack.

He heard as Jack shuffled over to him while replying. "He's keeping her in some drug induced stasis. He's not sure yet how to access Bad Wolf, so this is how he has to keep her until he does."

"How long has she been like this?"

"Asleep, right after we got here. This deep, only a few hours. The Master realized that Bad Wolf was still minutely active and so pushed her into a deeper sleep."

Jack was standing right behind the Doctor now who was bent over, releasing the ankle restraints on Rose.

"Doctor…" he heard Jack practically whisper as the word seemed to be forced from his mouth. Forgetting what he was doing, the Doctor spun around to see Jack, holding something, as his face contorted with strain. "Not… me…" he managed to gasp out before the fight inside abruptly ended. Jack stood strait once again, looking the Doctor in the eye.

"No…" the Doctor breathed as he looked into his friend's eyes. "You didn't…"

"I did," was the answer.

"Master," the Doctor said to him, matter-of-factly.

"Welcome back, Doctor. I have been waiting for you."

The Doctor stared him down for a moment before saying, "I'm warning you Master, leave him right now."

The Master chuckled slightly before answering, "Why would I do that? This is the perfect host. He can't die and so, neither shall I. I can't burn this body out like all of the others. I will never have to worry about death getting in the way of my plans again. And I even don't have to be concerned with the whole regeneration process. This is the perfect vehicle for someone like me."

"Except he's fighting you," the Doctor said with a slight smile. "I heard him. I saw him fighting against you."

The Master frowned just a little before admitting, "True. I still have to concentrate to keep the body in line. But not for much longer. As soon as I unlock the power in your girlfriend here," he said waving his hand at Rose, "I can erase your friend from this mind and have it myself."

"Jack will never let that happen. And neither will I."

Again, the Master laughed as he took a step closer saying, "What are you going to do? You come here, unarmed, unprotected, without friends, throwing idle treats at me without a shred of power behind them."

The Doctor blinked as he processed everything that the Master had just said while hiding his reaction from his face. He took a step back from the too close Master as said, "I don't need anything against you. I've gone up against you countless times with only my wits and always have come away the winner. Why should I fear you now?"

"Yes, why should you? And yet you retreat," the Master smiled as he took another step to the Doctor.

"Well I'm not sure if it's Jack or you I should be telling this but, your breath stinks, buddy," the Doctor responded, backing up a few more steps.

The Master just continued to grin. "Really Doctor. Admit it. You've run out of options and now you're fearing what it is that I am going to you. And let me assure you, you should."

They were now a fair distance from where Rose lay as the Master finally brought up the hand that held something. It was a silvery disk which had four indentations in it where the Master's fingers gripped it.

"I had to rebuild my little remote, but I think I've done a better job of it overall," the Master said as the disk began to glow.

The Doctor felt something inside his head slipping. The wall that Nine had helped to erect was cracking and it was only a matter of moments before he would be wide open to the influence of the Master. He gasped as pain began to grow in the back of his head from fighting the pull. "You won't win, Master." He managed to say while glancing back over to Rose.

He could almost cry for joy at the sight he saw. Nine was standing over her, pushing something into her with a syringe.

But then everything seemed to just crumble as his mental barrier collapsed. He gasped in pain as his muscles all spasmed and he fell to the floor.

"Ah, I knew that I would get through eventually," the Master said. "You see Doctor," he continued as he moved to stand menacingly over him. "I not only have a control to your actions, but to you entire nervous system. With a single thought, I can, stop your breathing…"

As he said that, the Doctor suddenly was unable to take a breath. His lungs had completely stopped listening to him. As he lay there, choking, the Master continued. "I could stop a heart..."

And he became woosy and weak as one of his hearts stopped pumping blood. But at the same time, he was able to intake a shuttering breath as his lungs once again pulled air.

"I could take away one, or all of your senses," he said as first the Doctor went blind then numb.

"Or even intensify those senses…"

Suddenly his sight was back with a blinding intensity. The single light in the room pierced through his head as it seared his eyes.

"Just think of the fun that we can have together," the Master said as once again everything returned to normal as the Doctor realized that the Master was now bending over, speaking just inches from his ear.

"Or what fun I could have with you, Master," a voice echoed from somewhere behind him.

The Master spun around, looking at something that he didn't think was possible. Rose was standing, on her own, in front of the table that she had just recently been strapped to, eyes glowing a strange ethereal light.

Beside her stood a man in black whom the Master did not recognize. Behind him stood four of the Doctor's former companions. One was from a time long, long ago. Another was his most recent. But the other two… now those two he remembered all too clearly…

"Grace and Chang. How wonderful to see you again," he said maliciously, completely ignoring the others that stood before him, even Rose.

"Leave them, Master," Rose said with power and authority.

The Master looked at her as he realized just how dangerous this situations was for him. "How did this happen?" he said, more to himself than anything.

"Master… meet my ninth self," Ten said as he managed to climb to his feet.

"That's not possible…" he muttered as he looked at the man standing beside Rose. "You came alone," he said, glancing back at Ten.

"Must have been something Jack told you because obviously I am not alone." For a moment, his words seemed to echo in his head as if someone else had said them before. But being that it wasn't important to the moment, he shook the feeling off.

The Master spun around in a rage, bringing the disk up again as it glowed brilliantly. But nothing happened. It only glowed brighter and began to take on a red hew as the Master suddenly threw it down with a yelp of pain. He stared at it dumbly as he watch it disintegrate on the floor before his eyes.

"Your days of control are at an end," Rose said as she moved closer to where the Master stood. "You have been a thorn in the side of the universe for far to long. It is time that I removed you."

The Master looked at her through Jacks eyes as he said, "What would you do? Kill me?"

Rose looked at the Master with her glowing eyes. She seemed to be very distant and far away as she glanced at Ten over the Master's shoulder.

"What would you do?" she asks him.

"I don't have the knowledge that you do, Bad Wolf," he said to her. "You know what he has done and what he is capable of. But you also know what he will do and how he is connected within the universe. You can see the things that I cannot."

Bad Wolf sighed as she shook her head. "I see so much. And I know that I should destroy as I did the Daleks, but he is so alone. It is so easy for me to pity him as I see how terribly alone he is, was, and always will be."

"Pity?" the Master snarled.

"Yes," she answered, looking at him again. "You have never had another in your life. And now, with your people gone, you don't even have something to belong to."

"Why pity me? Your Doctor is just as alone as I."

She shook her head, "Look around you, Master. What do you see? Five of his dearest friends stand before you from all different times. You yourself are using another. You have touched Jack's mind, you know that he would lay his life down for the Doctor. Could you say the same for anyone that you have ever known?" she asked.

The Master glared at Bad Wolf as he realized that he was facing his destruction. And now this… this girl… was standing there telling him how she pitied him. There must be some way to use that to save himself.

Nodding slowly, the Master said, "I am alone. And what of it? What does that mean?"

Bad Wolf looked at him and through him as she scanned time and space for an answer. "I don't wish to wipe out one of the last two Time Lords in the universe. But I don't have any guarantee that you won't continue on your path of destruction should I allow you to live."

"How would you let me live?" the Master asked. "You would never allow me to continue to use this body and I'm sure that you won't choose to put me in another."

Bad Wolf continued to look at the Master as she said, "You are right. You have given me the only answer. Name one soul, one person in the entire universe who would ever have risked himself or herself freely for you, and I will consider allowing you to survive."

The Master stared at her. For the first time in his life, he had run out of ideas. What she was asking for was an answer he wasn't sure he would be able to give her. Who had ever shown him love or even mercy in his entire life?

"Rose, is that such a good idea?" Nine asked her.

"It is a just one," she answered.

"Justice is not always what is good for everyone," Ten answered as he crossed over to where everyone else was.

"But it is right," she said. "That is what you have taught me, Doctor. It doesn't matter what it means, as long as you stand up for what is right and true."

Ten nodded, conceding to her answer. Nine looked at her as if maybe the power had driven her mad. As Ten saw his former-self's reaction, he realized how much of a change he went through in his last regeneration.

He thought back to what he was like during that time in his life. He remembered how bitter and callous he had become in that life just following the Time War. And now he knew why his new life had changed so much… it was Rose. Rose had saved him from himself. She reminded him what it was like to be on the side of right and not just looking at numbers. For Nine, it was all about who would lose more. For Rose, it was about finding the truth and setting things right, no matter what the consequences… And that was what he remembered being. He was once that way and during his Ninth life, he had lost that.

"Master? Do you have an answer?" Bad Wolf asked.

The Master's thoughts had been reeling and he had come up with no one. There had never been a soul that he had encountered who had not feared him or loathed him. He had come across so many people and he had always found ways to best use them. And now the irony was, he needed to find someone to use, but because he had used them all before, there was no one left for him.

Finally, he was about to admit defeat when he looked at the two Doctors standing just behind Rose. A flash of a memory drifted through his mind as he realized the answer. He nearly laughed at how simple it was, but there it was, staring him in the face.

He switched his eyes to Bad Wolf as he now had an answer for her. "There has only been one person in all of time and space who has ever risked his own life to save mine. I was too proud to except that offer then, but now you ask for one who would risk himself for me and I shall name him."

Ten and Nine looked uncomfortably to each other as the Master paused for emphasis.

"The Doctor…" he announced. "When I was falling into the eye, he risked himself to reach in and pull me out. I refused his hand and so didn't save myself or pull him in with me."

Bad Wolf eyed the Master, looking into time to confirm what he was saying was true.

"I may have had pity on you then Master, but it does not mean that I would throw my life away on you now," Ten said.

"What he says is true," Bad Wolf answered hollowly.

"Rose, you can't do this. You know that the Master must be destroyed," Nine said as he grabbed her arm and looked into her glowing eyes.

"I have given my word," she answered. Ten and Nine began to fear what was about to happen. "I said he could live if he could name one who would have ever risked himself to save him, and that is what he has done. But I did not say that person is who shall take him," she concluded.

Nine and Ten exchanged looks again and asked together, "then who?"

Bad Wolf broke from Nine's hold as she stepped closer to the Master.  
"It was I who promised him life and it is I who shall give it to him."

A/N: oOo, another cliffy. Hope you like and review.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 

"Rose, No!" Ten called as he ran to her other side and grabbed a hold of her arm as Nine spun her around to look at him.

"Rose you can't do that!" he said to her.

"Be calm, my Doctor. I know what I am doing," with that she shook both of the Doctors' off and took yet another step closer to the Master.

"I shall give you life Master, but know this, I am offering you a chance to start over. I have already wiped all of your stores of technology and weapons off the face of the universe. You will have nothing to work with and must begin your life a fresh."

"I won't need any of that stuff now," the Master said.

"You misunderstand what I mean for you. It is not I who shall house you. In fact, no one but yourself shall be your vehicle from now on.'

'Master, from this moment on, you shall be reborn. I give you back your original form. I send you back to your beginning to start a new and to try again. From now on, you shall pick your own fate as you start from the very beginnings once again."

As she talked, the light between her and the Master intensified. It looked as if tendrils of power were emanating from Rose's body and poking and prodding at Jack's. In a matter of moments, the tendrils found what they were seeking and dragged what looked like a mass of undulating quicksilver from Jack's mouth.

Jack gasped and collapsed where he stood. Martha, who had been watching everything in silence with the other four companions, broke from the group and ran to Jack's side.

The puddle of quicksilver was deposited upon the floor where it began to writhe and squirm, trying to escape from whatever Bad Wolf was about to attempt.

"Master, I take from you the name that you have given yourself as a term to complete your quest for power and return you to your given name, Ruath. I give you rebirth!" she said as the light particles once again descended upon the essence of what had been the Master. The light soon became far too bright for anyone to look at. It took a moment, but as the light dissipated, they heard what the result was before they were able to see.

The soft, gentle sound of a crying baby reached their ears as their eyes clear from the star-bursts. There, lying on the ground where the Master had been, was a baby boy, crying for attention.

"You…" Ten began.

"I offered him a second chance," Bad Wolf answered. "He is a Time Lord once again."

"What are we going to do with him?" Nine asked.

"A loving, human home I believe will give him the best opportunity. In time, perhaps Doctor, you can begin to teach him of the Time Lords. But he should have at least one life spent living with humans I believe."

Ten nodded as he watched Grace approach the child that now lay squirming on the floor.

"Is it him? Will he remember his past life?" she asked as she knelt beside the baby.

"Yes, and no. It is still the Master. He is exactly the way that he was born to his mother so many years ago. He will begin completely new and hopefully, he will get it right this time. He is such a brilliant mind and will do many great things if he can be set upon a proper path."

Grace looked at Bad Wolf before she nodded and picked the child up off of the floor, cradling him in her arms. "In that case," she said. "May I be the one to lead him? I would never presume to be a great person. But I would like to think that I could at least point him in right directions and steer him away from the evil that once processed him."

Bad Wolf smiled and answered, "Grace… so aptly named you are, for it will be of your grace that will lead him from the darkness and into new light. Keep him well Grace, and he may yet surprise us."

"Rose, what of you?" Nine asked. "That power is going to burn you."

Bad Wolf turned her eyes to Nine as her smile faded. "It is true. I cannot last much longer in Rose without damaging her. I have already stretched her further than ever. And now that you all are safe, I must retreat again… only this time it will be for good."

"You are leaving Rose?" Ten asked.

"I must. I see now that though there are so many things that you need me for, it is too dangerous. Today it was the Master who almost won my power, tomorrow it may be another. No person should hold the power that I do. I must release. I must leave Rose for good."

Ten nodded as he looked her in the eye. "She is a human, and humans are not meant to be gods."

"And neither are Time Lords," she admonished. "Doctor, you have played god many times and have nearly been burned yourself. You often teeter on the edge of a knife, attempting to bring order to the universe. I warn you Doctor, though you have always been on the side of good, your luck will one day run out. Please, be careful how you spend your time, energy, and power. You never know what line you may cross that you'll wish you never did."

Ten just continued to look her in the eye as he took her words in. They had hit many nerves, but he was unwilling to expose them there before everyone to truly absorb what he was hearing.

By now, Jack had come back around and, with Martha's help, was sitting up. "Rose," he called to her. "Please… before it's too late…"

Bad Wolf turned her eyes to him and gave him a sorrowful look. "My Jack," she said. "I never should have condemned you in the way that I did. It was all so exciting in those first, brief, moments. I see now that giving life is not such the blessing that I had believed. Of course I shall return you to your mortal state, as it is the greatest wish that you have. Just remember," she said with a slight smile, "you can be killed now, so no more crazy, insane stunts."

With that, her eyes glowed slightly stronger as Jacks did so in response. The light that hovered in Jack's eyes, floated out and into the air, drifting above his head for a moment before dissipating and vanishing from sight.

"I know that you all still have so many questions," Bad Wolf said as she turned, looking at everyone in turn. "I will try and leave at least some of the answers in Rose's head, though she may not understand it all."

"Is that a good idea.…? Ten asked.

"It will cause no harm. And Doctor," she said to him. "My warnings and signs are still spread through the galaxy, watch for them, heed them. There is much left for you to overcome."

Slowly the light was fading from her eyes are she began to once again take on a more human look. Just as the light had almost disappeared, it flared once more as she said, "Oh, and Doctor, I have given Rose one final gift. Please, just trust her when she tells you how to find that gift. I have made sure that it will be alright."

Slightly baffled, Ten just nodded to Bad Wolf, as he watched the last of the power vanish from Rose's eyes. The last thing that he thought he heard from her was, "stay safe." But it was so quite that he wasn't sure if it had just been in his head or not. As he thought about it, it may have been in his head; but that didn't mean that it didn't come from Bad Wolf.

Nine and Ten were standing on either side of Rose when the power left her completely. She immediately fell into a faint as they reached out and grabbed her. The two Doctors exchanged a look before Nine allowed Ten to lift Rose into his arms and carry her out of there. Nine watched as Ten left the room before coming to Jack's side and assisting Martha in helping him out.

"Never thought I'd see your face again," Jack said with a tired smile to the Doctor.

"Well I never thought I would ever see your face. I still have no idea who you are," he answered.

"You will," Jack replied with a grin.

A/N: Alright, nearly there. Just a little wrap up to tie things off and this one comes to a close. I have do have a few ideas floating around of where to take this story later, but nothing to begin for a while yet. Thank you all for reading and reviewing. I hope you enjoyed it all and will keep an eye out for continuations. Also, I really don't know if the Master had a proper name or if it is ever mentioned anywhere in any of the series or comics, or books, so I used this one. I know that it is a name of a Time Lord in some spin off or other, but I liked the name so I plugged it in here. If anyone does happen to know his real name, (if it was even given), feel free to let me know and I'll change it.

**Thanks again, and stay tuned for the last chappie.**

**Mystica**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 

Rose slowly awoke to find herself tucked in her bed on the TARDIS.

"Doctor?" she said softly.

"I'm here Rose," he replied, just as softly near to her side.

She turned her head gently as she discovered that she had an awful headache. Her vision was slightly fuzzy, but after blinking a few times, she saw her Doctor, sitting bent over in a chair beside her bed. He held his face in his hands as he looked at her intently.

She looked back at him, wondering what happened. Everything seemed like a mess in her head; but she knew one thing. It was the last thing that she had thought before her world had gone black when she faced the Master.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, nearly in tears. "I'm so sorry."

"Shh," he said as he got out of his chair and knelt on the floor beside the bed while reaching out to her. He wiped a tear from her eye with one hand and cradled her cheek with the other. "You had to do it," he said to her. "Like you said before, everything had to be as it was."

She tried to smile but shook her head, "I know, but I shouldn't have done that to you. I know how it feels, to be left behind, and I should never have done that."

"What's done is done. All that matters now is we're together again."

Rose sighed as she tried to sit up. Her whole body seemed to rebel against her as it screamed with aches and pains. But she ignored it and managed to push herself up against her pillows to a sitting position. "What happened?" she asked as her thoughts continued to fly around inside her head. Many of them didn't seem to belong to her, and yet, they did.

"The Master captured you and put you into stasis to keep Bad Wolf at bay until he could figure out how to handle you."

"I… I remember that. Jack and I searched the asteroid, looking for him. He came out of nowhere and before I knew what had happened, I was hit by some kind of dart and then everything gets fuzzy from there."

"I don't know what all happened to you from there. But before slipping out, Bad Wolf woke me and called for help. I came and, with some help," he said with a smile, "woke you up and Bad Wolf took over from there."

"How?" she asked as the lightest of memories that were and were not her own began to surface.

He looked at her a moment as he saw her mind racing. He could see that some of what had happened was still in there, but it must be too hazy for her to put together. He wondered if she knew exactly what had happened.

"I remember…" she gave a slight gasp as a face appeared in her memory. "You!" she exclaimed.

"Yes Rose, I was there."

"No, not you… Your last self, the one that I met, he was there," she breathed.

The Doctor smiled at her as he said, "Yeah, I needed a TARDIS to get to you and since you had mine…"

"You did what I did, found a former life and used his."

"Yup."  
"Is he still…" she began to ask as she started to try and climb from her bed.

"No," the Doctor answered as he held her back. "I took him back and helped to erase the events from his memory. He won't know about any of it until he gets to these moments."

Rose looked slightly sad that she was unable to see her Doctor… her first Doctor, one last time. But at least she still had her Doctor, the one she was in love with and who loved her in return, here with her.

"There were others too," she said as she pushed his face aside and tried to picture the others.

"Yes, Sarah came, as well as a couple friends from my eighth life, Grace and Chang. And of course Martha."

"Where are they?" she asked.

"Took them all home…" his face slightly fell as he added, "including Martha."

"Why?" Rose asked.

"She decided that it was time to move on. She said that she needed to fit back into normalcy once again. She wanted to finish her path as a doctor and live her life."

"I don't believe it," Rose said.

"To tell the truth, I didn't really either," he smiled slightly as he continued, "But I think her and Chang began to get rather close. I think that Martha is finally ready to let me go now that I have you and she has Chang."

Rose was quite for a moment as she thought it over. Finally she nodded and said, "I hope she's happy."

"Me too," he sighed.

"But what else? I keep getting flashes of things, but it is pretty hazy."

He decided to give her the brief version of the story. "You took care of the Master, set Jack right, and…" he trailed off, wondering what she would think now that Bad Wolf was gone for good.

"And…" she prompted.

"And Bad Wolf left. She's gone Rose, for good."

Rose sat a second as she turned her thoughts inward. She had just managed to be able to feel Bad Wolf inside her before she had left the Doctor. It was how she had been able to put him to sleep. But now, there was nothing. Where a presence had been, there felt like a pocket of space inside her head. There was no awareness inside this pocket, just…

"What?" she said to herself.

The Doctor misunderstood her, "Bad Wolf left you. She knew that if the Master was able to get so close to you then someone…"

But Rose interrupted him. "No, I get that. There's just something…" she trailed off as she began to 'look' at whatever was left behind in her mind.

"Rose?" the Doctor asked concerned.

Rose closed her eyes as a rush of information assaulted her system. The Doctor grabbed her as she began to slump over. "Rose!" he called again, wondering what could possibly have gone wrong this time.

She took several deep breaths before she pulled herself together again, her mind was still processing, but she could sense the Doctor's agitation. "It's alright," she said as she began to straighten. "I think Bad Wolf left me something."

The Doctor leaned her back against the pile of pillows as he watched her closely. She lay there, eyes closed, face full of concentration.

After what felt like an eternity, she opened them once again, "I remember," she said. "I remember what happened after you woke me…"

He nodded, he wondered if this time Bad Wolf would leave her with those memories, but he thought she might.

"I remember it as if I had been in the room, watching, but I can't remember thoughts or feels. It's as if I were watching a movie."

"Bad Wolf wanted you to know what she did but she knew you wouldn't understand if she left you with the why or how."

Rose nodded as she continued to look through those foreign thoughts. "She left me something," she said softly as she pulled at it some more. The Doctor watched as her faced changed from intense concentration to one of pure delight. She flashed him a disarming smile before she leapt from her bed and raced to the door.

"Rose?" he called after her as he attempted to catch up. He followed her right into the control room where Jack was playing with the controls.

"Look whose up," he said to her with a smile as she joined him at the controls. He watched as she didn't even acknowledge his presence while punching buttons and turning dials.

K-9 rolled over to her as he asked, "mistress?" Rose ignored him.

"What's up?" Jack asked her as the Doctor ran into the room.

"Rose, what are you doing?" he asked as he came to watch her mess with his TARDIS controls.

"She left me a gift," she said excitedly while working away.

The Doctor and Jack exchanged a look before Jack pulled the Doctor back a step and said, "Do you know what she's doing? Because I have no idea."

"Neither do I," he responded. "And that's what worries me."

"Master, she is accessing temporal settings," K-9 informed the Doctor.

"Rose?" he said again. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Yes! She left it all here," she said, pausing long enough to tap the side of her head.

"Didn't Bad Wolf say that Rose might not understand everything that was left for her?" Jack asked the Doctor.

"Yes, but she also said to trust Rose…" he answered but then he saw what it was she was attempting. "Rose! You can't do that!" he cried as he reached out to stop her. But just then, the TARDIS lurched, send him and Jack to the floor. Rose grabbed a hold of the consol just in time to keep herself steady. She turned another dial as the men felt and heard the TARDIS entering the time vortex.

"Rose, you'll tear it apart!" the Doctor cried as he climbed to his feet and tried to make it to Rose to stop her.

"No, it's alright. We can do this!" she said, throwing one last lever. The TARDIS groaned and shook, but they could hear as it began to rematerialize… somewhere.

The shaking and noise came to a stop and the Doctor barely had time to register that they weren't dead for Rose to run past him and out of the doors.

"Mum! Dad! Mickey!" Jack and the Doctor heard her calling.

"No…" Jack breathed.

"We're in Pete's world," the Doctor said, disbelievingly, as he walked over to the door to his ship and looked out.

There, in front of him, was Pete's house, and Rose running up to the door. It looked like those inside had heard their reentry because Pete, Mickey, and Jackie with a young girl in her arms were running up to meet her.

"Rose!" Jackie cried, as she quickly handed the child off to Mickey.

The Doctor looked on in wonder as Rose and her mother embraced. "I thought we'd lost you," he heard Jackie muttering through tears and smothering hugs.

"It's alright mum. I'm here."

Jack and the Doctor watched the family scene unfold before them. "How'd she do it?" Jack asked.

"I don't know, but I think that Bad Wolf somehow stabilized the bridge between our worlds. But I don't think anything other than the TARDIS will be able to fit through that crack… and even then, it took some very unique flying."

"Rose is the only one who can cross then?" Jack asked.

"I think so… And I think that's what Bad Wolf wanted."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They spent several days with the Tylers before Rose announced, "We really have to be going, but we can come back any time now," she said.

"Where are you off to now?" Pete asked.

She looked at the Doctor as she continued to search her gifted memories for what they still must do. "We need to seal the Cardiff rift. It is still very dangerous to our worlds."

The Doctor nodded, "That's what I told Gwen when I left her last."

At Gwen's name, she took on a bit of a far off look before shaking it off and then saying, "Yeah, we need to seal it," and leaving at that for right then.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It wasn't until they had returned to the TARDIS and then back into their universe that Rose revealed what it was that she had discovered.

"Doctor?" she said to him. "Gwen, she's Gwyneth, isn't she?" she started.

"Yes," he answered, "though I still have no idea how it works."

"I think I do," she answered. "It was Bad Wolf. She… not so much created Gwen, but… changed her."

"How so?"

"Bad Wolf knew that we would have many needs for that rift. But it wasn't open enough for our uses. She made it so Gwen would be the key that we needed to make it active. Gwen was tied to the rift to open it when she did. But Bad Wolf also realized the Gwen would have to give her life to make the rift safe until we needed it. That's why she appeared again, to help you use the rift. Gwen was given another life, because it was unfairly taken from her in 1869."

The Doctor thought about that as he said, "Then it was Bad Wolf who closed it after Gwen had died."

"Yes," Rose confirmed.

"Alright, how do we close it then?' he asked as he began to set the coordinates to Cardiff.

"No idea," she answered as she smiled at him.

Jack, who had just been listening to them piped up and said, "What? Bad Wolf gives you all kinds of information on how to get to a parallel world and various other little tips and tidbits including the knowledge that you need to close the rift, just not the knowledge of how to close it?"

"Yup," she said as she flashed him a smile.

"Gotta love that…" he muttered.

"Ooohh, I think I can come up with an idea or two," the Doctor said as the TARDIS began to rematerialize.

"I was afraid of that," Jack said as he grabbed his coat from the edge of the consol and strode out of the door.

Rose and the Doctor exchanged a look before they both burst into laughter. "Shall we than, Doctor?" Rose said through her peels.

"Let's, Miss Tyler," he answered as he linked his arm into hers and strode out the door after Jack.

A/N: Alright. Here ends this tale. I may pick up from here or skip ahead a bit for my next work, but that won't be in the very near future I am afraid. I hope I wrapped everything up that I had left open. If not, feel free to let me know and I may be able to work something out. But, here it is…

**Thank you all so much for sticking with me and giving me your reviews… I so love to see that people really are reading and are interested.**

**Thanks again,**

**Mystica**


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